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University  of  California. 


. 

isrp.    V 


V 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


OLIVEE  P.  MOETON, 

(A  SENATOR  FROM  INDIANA,) 

DELIVERED  IN  THE 

SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

January  17  and  18,  1878. 


PUBLISHED     BV    ORDER    OF    CONGRESS. 


Forty-fifth  Congress,  Second  Session. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE. 
1878. 


I  1!  it  A  It  Y 


CALIFORNIA. 

ANNOUNCEMENT 


DEATH  OF  OLIVER  P.  MORTON, 


A    SENATOR    FROM    INDIANA. 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER  2,  1877. 


Rev.  BYRON  SUNDERLAND,  D.D.,  Chaplain  of  the  Senate,  offered 
the  following 

PRAYER : 

O  Thou  infinite,  self-existent,  eternal  One,  our  Father  in  Heaven, 
before  whose  sight  all  time  and  space  are  as  nothing,  and  all  the 
life  of  all  Thy  creatures  begins,  unfolds,  and  changes  according  to 
the  purpose  Thy  will  decrees,  we,  Thy  servants,  come  this  day 
humbly  to  acknowledge  the  dispensation  of  Thy  providence.  We 
have  heard  the  voice  that  calls  to  us  out  of  the  chamber  of  death, 
out  of  the  mouth  of  the  grave;  and  by  faith  we  see  lifeless  and 
prostrate  the  form  of  him  who  will  share  no  more  in  these  councils 
of  the  nation,  whose  great  life-work  has  now  been  concluded  in  the 
eyes  of  all  the  people.  By  faith  we  witness  the  scene  in  yonder 
home,  where  a  broken  family  sit  down  to-day  in  all  the  ashes  of 
mourning. 


ANNOUNCEMENT   OF   THE 


O  Lord,  our  God,  help  us  all,  Thy  servants,  to  recognize  and 
humbly  to  submit  in  this  event  to  Thy  righteous  will.  May  the 
Congress  and  the  nation  together  be  sensible  of  Thy  dealing,  and 
when  Thou  comest  nigh  to  us  in  cutting  off  men  from  the  face 
of  the  earth  may  we  come  nigh  to  Thee  in  loving  confidence  and 
filial  trust,  and  in  the  ordering  of  our  obedience  to  fulfill  Thy 
pleasure. 

O  Lord,  our  God,  we  are  all  in  Thy  hands  to  do  with  us  as  Thou 
wilt.  Be  very  gracious  unto  us  and  help  us.  Regard  the  cry  of 
those  who  grieve  in  the  bitterness  of  sorrow.  Assuage  all  the 
anguish  of  loving  hearts.  Be  merciful  to  the  widow  and  the  father 
less.  Lift  up  this  nation  to  a  higher  life  of  fortitude  and  virtue  by 
the  bereavements  and  the  disasters  we  experience,  so  that  light  may 
come  forth  out  of  darkness,  so  that  good  may  prevail  over  evil,  and 
so  that  Thy  saving  help  may  be  known  among  all  nations.  Through 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


Mr.  McDONALD.  Mr.  PRESIDENT:  It  becomes  my  painful 
duty  to  announce  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  the  death  of 
my  late  colleague,  OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  of  Indiana. 

He  died  at  his  family  residence  in  the  city  of  Indianapolis  yester 
day  afternoon  at  half-past  five  o'clock.  The  funeral  services  and 
burial  will  take  place  on  Monday  the  5th  of  this  month,  at  the  city 
of  his  late  residence.  At  some  suitable  time  I  will  submit  resolu 
tions  expressive  of  the  sense  of  the  Senate  as  to  the  loss  sustained 
by  the  country  by  the  death  of  my  late  distinguished  colleague. 
At  present,  that  the  Senate  may  be  properly  represented  on  the 
mournful  occasion  of  his  funeral  and  to  note  the  melancholy  an- 


DEATH   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON. 


nouncement,  I  submit  the  following  resolutions  and  move  their 
adoption : 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  consisting  of  six  Senators  be  appointed  by  the  Chair 
to  attend  the  funeral  obsequies  of  Hon.  OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  to  take  place  at  his  late 
residence,  at  the  city  of  Indianapolis,  on  Monday  the  5th  instant. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory -of  the  deceased,  the  Senate 
do  now  adjourn. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT  appointed  as  the  committee  under 
the  first  resolution  Messrs.  McDoNALD,  DAVIS  of  Illinois,  BURN- 
SIDE,  BAYARD,  CAMERON  of  Pennsylvania,  and  BOOTH;  and  (at 
twelve  o'clock  and  eight  minutes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


ADDRESSES 


ON    THE 


DEATH  OF  OLIVER  p.  MORTON, 


A    SENATOR    FROM    INDIANA. 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  SENATE. 
THURSDAY,  JANUARY  17,  1878. 


Mr.  McDONALD.  Mr.  PRESIDENT:  1  send  to  the  Secretary's 
desk  resolutions  to  be  read  for  information,  and  to  be  acted  upon  by 
the  Senate  in  their  proper  order. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT.     The  resolutions  will  be  read. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  from  an  earnest  desire  to  show  every  mark  of  respect  to  the  mem 
ory  of  Hon.  OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  late  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State 
of  Indiana,  and  to  manifest  the  high  estimate  entertained  of  his  eminent  public 
services,  his  distinguished  patriotism,  and  his  usefulness  as  a  citizen,  the  business  of 
the  Senate  be  now  suspended  that  the  friends  and  associates  of  the  deceased  Senator 
may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  his  public  and  private  virtues. 

Mr.  McDONALD.  Mr.  President,  I  ask  that  that  resolution 
be  now  adopted. 

The  resolution  was  considered,  and  agreed  to  unanimously. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT.  The  remaining  resolutions  will 
be  read. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  a  wide-spread  and  public  sorrow  on  the  announcement  of  his 
death  attested  the  profound  sense  of  the  loss  which  the  whole  country  has  sustained. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr.  MORTON,  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Senate  will  go  into  mourning  by  wearing  crape  upon  the  left  arm  for 
thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  these  resolutions  to  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

Resolved,  That  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  deceased 
Senator,  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 


ADDRESS   OF   MB.    MCDONALD   ON   THE 


Address  of  Mr.  MCDONALD,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  On  the  1st  day  of  November,  1877,  in  the  after 
noon,  at  five  o'clock  and  twenty-eight  minutes,  my  late  colleague, 
OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  departed  this  life. 

The  Senate,  at  the  time,  took  note  of  his  death  and  manifested 
its  respect  for  him  by  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  be  present 
at  his  burial. 

The  resolutions  which  I  submit  to  day  for  the  consideration  of 
the  Senate  are  designed  to  be  placed  upon  the  journals  of  Congress, 
there  to  remain  for  all  time  a  record-monument  to  his  memory. 

In  moving  these  resolutions  I  do  not  expect  to  become  his  eulo 
gist.  I  feel  that  I  am  not  suited  to  the  task. 

We  can  all  say  that  by  his  death  a  "great  name  has  been  stricken 
from  the  roll  of  the  Senate."  Few,  if  any,  filled  so  large  a  space 
in  the  public  mind  during  the  eventful  period  in  our  history  in 
which  he  lived.  But  the  mellowing  influence  of  time  will  have  to 
cast  its  mantle  over  these  events  and  the  prominent  part  he  took  in 
them  before  a  political  opponent,  and  especially  a  citizen  of  his  own 
State,  can  so  far  free  his  mind  from  the  influences  engendered  by  the 
political  strifes  as  to  be  just,  much  less  to  be  able  to  indulge  in  the 
pardonable  license  which  sanctions  the  exaggeration  of  virtues  and 
high  quality  and  hides,  as  if  with  a  veil,  all  defects. 

Less  than  one  year  ago,  when  the  Senate  had  under  consideration 
the  resolutions  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  its  late  Speaker,  Michael  C.  Kerr,  Senator  MORTON  was 
borne  from  the  Supreme  Court  room,  where  he  was  engaged  as  a 
member  of  the  electoral  commission,  to  this  Chamber  to  take  part 
in  the  proceedings.  On  that  occasion,  speaking  of  Mr.  Kerr,  he  said : 

We  live  in  a  State  somewhat  distinguished  of  late  years  for  the  bitterness  of  its 
political  contests.  While  he  and  I  were  on  different  sides,  yet  our  personal  relations 
were  always  good,  and  I  now  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to  his  memory. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON. 

These  words  and  this  sentiment  I  can  and  do  fully  apply  to  him. 

OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  a  native  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and 
was  born  in  the  county  of  Wayne  on  the  4th  day  of  August,  1823. 
A  brief  period  in  the  common  schools  of  his  native  State,  four  years' 
apprenticeship  at  the  hatter's  trade,  and  two  short  years  at  Oxford 
College,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  made  up  the  sum  of  his  preparation 
to  enter  upon  the  business  of  life.  Having  chosen  the  profession 
of  law,  he  devoted  himself  to  its  study  and  came  to  the  bar  in  1847. 
Had  he  continued  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted  that,  with  the  energy  and  ability  he  has  displayed  in  other 
fields,  he  would  have  become  a  leading  member  in  it.  While  he 
was  more  or  less  connected  with  the  political  controversies  of  the 
times,  it  was  not  until  1856  that  he  may  be  said  to  have  entered 
actively  into  political  life,  when  he  became  the  candidate  of  what 
was  known  as  the  people's  party  for  governor  of  the  State. 

Before  that  time,  and  up  to  1854,  he  had  been  identified  polit 
ically  with  the  democratic  party ;  but  upon  the  passage  of  the  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  act,  by  which  the  Missouri  compromise  line  was 
repealed,  he  detached  himself  from  that  party  and  joined  in  the 
movement  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  first  of  the  people's 
and  afterwards  of  the  republican  party.  But  it  was  not  until  1861 
that  he  became  generally  known  to  the  country.  In  October,  1860, 
he  was  elected  lieutenant-governor  of  his  State  on  the  ticket  with 
Governor  Henry  S.  Lane,  and  upon  the  election  of  Governor  Lane 
to  the  Senate,  in  January  following,  he  became  acting  governor, 
and  continued  to  be  the  chief  magistrate  of  his  native  State  until 
January,  1867,  when  he  was  elected  a  Senator  from  the  State  to 
succeed  Senator  Lane  in  this  body.  His  course  and  conduct  as  gov 
ernor  of  Indiana  during  the  civil  war  are  so  well  known  to  the 
country  and  have  been  so  much  the  subject  of  comment  as  to  make 


10  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    MCDONALD   ON   THE 

it  unnecessary  for  me  to  do  more  than  refer  to  them.  The  energy 
with  which  he  supported  and  upheld  the  power  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  in  its  efforts  to  suppress  the  rebellion  won  for  him  the  name 
and  title  of  the  "  war  governor,"  and  gave  him  a  permanent  place 
in  the  front  rank  of  the  public  men  of  the  country. 

Naturally  combative  and  aggressive,  intensely  in  earnest  in  his 
undertakings,  and  intolerant  in  regard  to  those  who  differed  with 
him,  it  is  not  strange  that  while  he  held  together  his  friends  and  fol 
lowers  with  hooks  of  steel,  he  caused  many  whose  patriotism  and 
love  of  country  were  as  sincere  and  unquestioned  as  his  own  to  place 
themselves  in  political  hostility  to  him.  And  the  political  situation 
in  Indiana  was  well  expressed  by  him  when  he  said,  on  the  occasion 
I  have  already  referred  to : 

We  live  in  a  State  somewhat  distinguished  of  late  years  for  the  bitterness  of  its 
political  contests. 

During  the  early  part  of  Governor  MORTON'S  political  career  he 
was  as  distinguished  for  his  physical  strength  as  for  his  mental 
ability  and  energy;  but  in  the  fall  of  1865,  almost  without  warn 
ing,  he  was  stricken  down  by  partial  paralysis,  from  the  disabilities 
of  which  he  never  recovered  and  which  gradually  but  surely  carried 
him  to  his  grave.  When  he  entered  this  Chamber  to  take  his  seat 
as  a  Senator  he  was  enabled  to  do  so  only  by  the  aid  and  assistance 
of  others,  and  although  unschooled  in  parliamentary  law  and  without 
experience  in  the  methods  and  proceedings  of  deliberative  bodies, 
laboring  under  disabilities  that  would  have  induced  most  men 
to  seek  for  quiet  in  retirement,  almost  from  the  first  day  he  entered 
this  Chamber  he  became  the  political  leader  of  his  party  and  main 
tained  that  position  to  the  last;  not  that  there  were  not  other  mem 
bers  of  it  who  were  his  equals  in  intellect  and  his  superiors  in  learn 
ing,  yet  there  were  none  who  possessed  his  untiring  energy,  his 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  11 

sleepless  industry,  and  his  indomitable  will.  His  loss  of  physical 
vigor  seemed  to  have  added  concentrated  power  to  his  mental  facul 
ties  and  to  have  given  increased  activity  to  his  mental  energies,  so  that 
it  appeared  as  if  the  mind  was  acting  for  both  mind  and  body ;  and 
it  is  most  probably  true  that  this  increase  of  mental  activity  and 
constant  occupation  rather  added  to  his  life  by  drawing  the  mind 
away  from  dwelling  upon  the  helpless  condition  of  his  body  and 
the  incurable  malady  that  had  seized  upon  it. 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  follow  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  through 
his  senatorial  career.  He  became  a  member  of  this  body  after  the 
rebellion  had  been  suppressed  and  armed  resistance  to  the  Govern 
ment  put  down,  but  before  the  method  of  dealing  with  the  people 
of  the  Southern  States  or  the  policies  that  should  govern  in  the 
re-establishment  of  the  Federal  authority  over  the  States  lately  in 
rebellion  had  been  decided  upon  or  adopted.  The  two  modes  of 
what  was  termed  a  "  restoration "  of  the  Union  on  the  one  hand, 
or  a  "  reconstruction "  of  it  on  the  other,  were  then  being  actively 
canvassed  in  the  national  councils  and  before  the  country. 

Although  in  the  inception  of  these  questions  it  was  understood 
that  Governor  MORTON  favored  what  was  known  as  the  restoration 
policy,  yet  upon  becoming  a  member  of  this  body,  for  reasons  no 
doubt  satisfactory  to  himself,  he  became  the  champion  of  the  recon 
struction  policy,  and  continued  to  be  the  advocate  of  that  policy, 
and  the  logical  results  of  it,  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He 
also  took  a  leading  part  in  all  the  discussions  and  debates  that  arose 
in  this  body  from  time  to  time  as  is  fully  shown  by  the  records  of 
its  proceedings.  But  his  labors  during  the  last  session  of  the  last 
Congress  furnished  the  most  striking  illustration  of  his  sleepless 
energy.  As  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Privileges  and  Elections 
it  became  his  duty  to  direct  and  control  the  investigation  ordered 


12  ADDRESS   OF   ME.    MCDONALD   ON   THE 

by  the  Senate  into  the  elections  in  several  of  the  Southern  States  and 
respecting  the  Oregon  electoral  vote.  His  determined  opposition  to 
the  electoral  bill  and  his  efforts  to  defeat  it  are  well  remembered  by 
all  who  were  members  of  this  body  at  that  time. 

His  labors  upon  the  electoral  commission  during  the  eventful 
period  when  it  seemed  as  if  the  very  foundations  of  our  Government 
were  in  danger  of  being  uprooted  are  vividly  remembered  by  all. 
Physically  disabled,  yet  he  was  everywhere  present ;  borne  to  his 
committee-room,  carried  to  this  Chamber,  lifted  to  his  seat  in  the 
electoral  commission  by  the  strong  arms  of  others,  there  remaining 
into  the  long,  dreary  hours  of  the  night,  tireless  among  the  tired, 
pressing  on  where  strong  men  gave  way,  he  presents  a  picture  that 
may  well  excite  our  wonder  and  challenge  our  admiration,  and  for 
which  history  furnishes  no  example.  I  may,  however,  be  allowed 
to  say  that  in  all  these  things  the  part  he  played  was  intensely  par 
tisan.  To  him  it  may  have  appeared  true  statesmanship.  In  the 
great  contest  then  going  on  it  may  have  seemed  to  him  that  the  suc 
cess  of  his  party  was  essential  to  the  welfare  of  his  country.  By 
his  own  declaration,  he  opposed  the  electoral  bill  because  he  "  did 
not  want  to  give  up  a  certainty  for  an  uncertainty."  His  action  in 
the  committee  and,  as  far  as  we  are  able  to  judge,  on  the  electoral 
commission,  was  aimed  especially  to  maintain  that  vantage-ground ; 
and  when  success  was  finally  attained  it  may  be  said  that  it  rounded 
up  and  closed  his  political  career. 

The  subsequent  events  of  his  life  were  unimportant  and  will 
attract  but  little  attention  when  the  history  of  these  times  shall  have 
been  written. 

That  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  a  great  man  is  conceded  by  all. 
In  regard  to  his  qualities  as  a  statesman,  men  do  differ  now  and 
always  will.  But  that  he  was  a  great  partisan  leader — the  greatest 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  13 

of  his  day  and  generation — will  hardly  be  questioned ;  and  his  place 
in  that  particular  field  will  not,  perhaps,  be  soon  supplied.  No 
where  will  his  loss  be  so  severely  felt  as  among  his  friends  and  fol 
lowers  in  his  own  native  State. 

Viewing  him  simply  as  a  partisan,  even  his  opponents  concede 
that  he  possessed  many  high  and  generous  qualities.  If  he  struck 
hard  blows,  he  did  not  shrink  from  receiving  hard  blows  in  return ; 
and  when  the  strife  was  over  he  was  ever  ready  to  extend  a  hand 
and  to  sink,  if  not  forget,  the  past.  And  while  he  never  gave  up 
a  partisan  advantage,  he  was  ever  ready  to  perform  a  personal  act 
of  kindness  and  friendship  to  a  political  adversary  as  well  as  to  a 
political  friend ;  and  the  undying  love  and  affection  of  those  who 
stood  nearest  and  dearest  to  him  in  the  relations  of  life  attest  the 
warmth  and  strength  of  his  own  affections. 

And  now,  Mr.  President,  that  he  has  gone  to  his  grave,  where  we 
all  are  soon  to  follow  him,  if  he  had  faults  let  them  be  buried  with 
him.  Let  us  remember  and  cherish  only  those  kindly  feelings  and 
sentiments  which  his  higher  and  better  qualities  inspired. 


Address  of  Mr.  EDMUNDS,  of  Vermont. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  The  tribute  I  offer  to  the  memory  of  the  late 
Senator  from  Indiana  flows  from  a  personal  intercourse  of  good 
will  and  general  sympathy  covering  the  period  of  his  whole  career 
in  the  Senate,  from  1867  to  the  time  of  his  death,  and  also  from 
the  high  estimate  I  have  formed  of  his  extraordinary  ability  and 
the  purity  and  breadth  of  the  purposes  of  his  political  life. 

However  much  he  differed  with  his  political  opponents,  and  not 
infrequently  with  some  of  his  political  associates,  the  warmest  con 
troversy  rarely,  if  ever,  interfered  with  the  kindliness  of  his  per- 


14  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    EDMUNDS  ON   THE 

sonal  relations  with  his  fellow  Senators.  His  was  one  of  the  natures, 
not  too  common  in  the  world,  that  could  without  animosity  receive 
as  well  as  give  hard  blows  in  debate,  that  with  men  differently  con 
stituted  would  long  rankle  in  personal  bitterness  and  dislike.  But 
in  the  time  allotted  to  the  occasion  I  must  speak  of  his  relations 
to  public  aifairs  rather  than  of  those  felicities  of  character  that  made 
his  intercourse  with  his  fellow-men  in  the  communications  of  private 
life  a  pleasure  to  all  who  knew  him. 

The  qualities  that  command  the  largest  measure  of  material  suc 
cess  in  affairs  are  a  clearness  of  understanding  that  brings  into  view 
from  the  beginning  the  definite  end  and  the  most  available  processes 
by  which  it  is  to  be  reached,  together  with  that  force  of  will  which 
is  tireless  in  its  persistence  and  that  quickness  of  decision  which 
utilizes  instantly  the  commanding  points  in  every  crisis,  that  never 
leaves  an  enterprise  waiting  upon  doubts  until  the  tide  that  might 
have  borne  it  on  to  fortune  has  receded  and  left  the  nascent  victory 
a  helpless  wreck.  Men  with  such  qualities  become  the  founders  or 
saviors  of  States  and  systems  and  policies ;  and  they  are  the  leaders 
of  men,  not  from  the  intrigues  of  craft  and  cunning  or  the  power 
of  wealth  or  rank  or  the  traditions  of  a  family,  but  from  an  innate 
and  rightful  sovereignty  in  human  nature. 

These  qualities  are  not  those  essentially  necessary  to  oratory,  and 
they  frequently  exist  without  it.  Conspicuous  examples  of  these 
differences  exist  in  the  history  of  every  people.  The  finest  flights 
of  Cicero  or  of  Burke  had  little  effect  upon  the  condition  of  the 
Roman  or  English  nation  compared  •  with  the  plain  speech  and 
prompt  action  of  a  Coesar  or  a  Cromwell. 

Although  not  wanting  in  many  things  which  are  usually  consid 
ered  to  be  parts  of  oratorical  power,  Mr.  MORTON'S  greater  power 
consisted  in  the  large  possession  of  the  characteristics  I  have  named 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  15 

as  belonging  to  natural  leaders  of  men,  and  in  his  plain  but  persua 
sive  modes  of  impressing  his  views  upon  others  and  the  fitness  of 
their  following  him  to  their  realization. 

As  a  lawyer  it  perhaps  cannot  be  said  that  he  possessed  that  sub 
tlety  in  dialectics  and  that  copiousness  of  technical  learning  that 
would  have  made  him  pre-eminent  at  the  bar  in  the  disposition  of 
cases  arising  in  the  affairs  of  a  conventional  state  of  society  and  a 
complicated  system  of  jurisprudence.  But,  as  has  been  said  of  the 
famous  French  lawyer  and  statesman,  Odillon  Barrot,  his  real 
strength  lay  in  matters  "  which  he  could  lift  into  public  events  of 
paramount  importance  by  referring  them  to  the  broad  principles  on 
which  all  systems  of  social  order  or  policy  are  based."  In  discus 
sions  of  this  character  he  had  few  equals.  The  graphic  clearness  of 
his  statements,  the  simple  directness  of  his  logic,  and  the  sense  of 
his  sincere  earnestness  that  he  impressed  upon  his  hearers,  placed 
him  fairly  among  the  most  powerful  and  successful  of  speakers. 

Like  many  men  of  such  great  and  extraordinary  gifts  and  quali 
ties,  with  usually  a  most  sincere  belief  in  the  value  of  the  ends  he 
had  in  view  on  particular  occasions  and  an  intense  desire  to  attain 
them,  he  was  not  always  careful  as  to  the  consistency  of  the  methods 
of  reaching  them  or  of  the  harmony  of  those  methods  with  his 
previous  opinions.  The  object  appearing  to  him  to  be  a  high  one, 
as  of  justice  or  equal  rights,  he  did  not  always  pause  hi  his  pursuit 
of  it  to  consider  whether  the  path  he  trod  in  reaching  it  was  the 
same  with  or  differing  from  that  he  had  thought  the  only  fit  one  on 
some  former  occasion.  But  such  inconsistencies  were  in  their  nature 
far  from  the  shifting  selfishness  of  the  demagogue  or  the  vacillations 
of  weakness;  they  arose  rather  out  of  the  very  intensity  of  his  belief 
in  the  virtue  and  importance  of  the  thing  to  be  accomplished,  which 
to  him  made  the  most  available  reasons  and  processes  of  action  the 


16  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    EDMUNDS   ON   THE 

true  ones,  however  much  opposed  in  the  abstract  they  may  have 
been  to  opinions  he  had  before  expressed.  Such  peculiarities  as 
these,  while  in  many  men  they  would  be  vices,  were  with  him  almost 
virtues ;  for  they  were  never  shown  for  selfish  or  personal  aims,  but 
always  on  occasions  when  it  appeared  to  him  that  the  safety  of  the 
Republic  was  at  stake  or  the  liberties  and  rights  of  citizens  were  in 
peril. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  period  in  his  career  was  while  he 
was  governor  of  Indiana,  during  the  darkest  days  of  the  rebellion. 
This  is  not  the  proper  occasion  to  describe  in  detail  the  almost  insur 
mountable  dangers  and  difficulties  with  which  he  was  surrounded; 
dangers  and  difficulties  before  which  the  hearts  of  many  would  have 
sunk  and  the  efforts  of  many  would  have  failed.  But  his  brave 
soul  seemed  to  grow  stronger  as  perils  increased,  and  his  quickness 
of  perception  and  fertility  in  expedients  generally  frustrated  the 
plans  of  the  enemies  of  the  Republic,  and  stimulated  to  greater  ac 
tivity  its  weak  supporters  and  its  lukewarm  friends. 

From  the  arduous  and  multifarious  duties  of  his  executive  life 
we  follow  him  to  this  body,  in  which  he  took  his  seat  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1867. 

Here  he  found  pending  problems  in  legislation,  and  concerning 
the  future  frame-work  and  nature  of  the  Government,  as  difficult 
and  embarrassing  as  any  perhaps  that  have  ever  been  experienced 
by  a  civilized  people.  Their  nature  and  scope  are  familiar  to  us  all. 

To  their  solution  Mr.  MORTON  brought  a  fervent  love  of  that 
real  liberty  and  equality  of  rights  among  men  that  can  exist  only 
under  the  security  of  provisions  of  fundamental  law,  and  can  only 
be  practically  defended  and  promoted  by  the  enactment  of  statutes, 
and  their  fearless  and  vigilant  enforcement  by  the  judiciary  and 
executive  power.  His  voice  was  always  raised  in  favor  of  measures 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  17 

looking  to  these  ends.  To  his  zeal  and  vigor  in  debate  the  country 
is  much  indebted  for  two  of  the  constitutional  amendments  and  the 
statutes  to  enforce  them  that  have  been  made  since  the  close  of  the 
war  of  the  rebellion.  Whatever  of  failure  may  have  occurred 
in  realizing  all  that  true  liberty  under  the  law  implies  cannot  be 
attributed  to  any  want  of  interest  or  active  effort  on  his  part.  He 
firmly  believed  that  there  had  been  a  great  and  beneficent  change, 
a  lawful  revolution  in  the  form  of  the  Government  in  the  direction 
of  equal  rights,  as  the  fair  fruit  of  a  revolution  that  had  been 
attempted  in  the  interest  of  slavery  and  secession ;  and,  to  quote 
the  words  of  the  French  statesman  to  whom  I  have  compared  him, 
he  believed  that  it  would  be  a  misfortune  more  real  than  the  woes 
attending  the  rebellion  itself  for  those  who  had  failed  "to  think  that 
there  had  been  no  revolution,  for,  for  this  very  reason,  there  may 
be  two  instead  of  one.  And  in  truth,  if  a  revolution  without 
cause  is  fatally  condemned  to  miscarry,  the  miscarriage  is  not  less 
infallible  for  a  revolution  without  effect." 

He  was  a  man  of  strong  passions  and  great  talents,  and  was,  as 
a  consequence,  a  devoted  partisan.  He  had  no  faith  in  that  phi 
losophy  of  government  imputed  to  Louis  Napoleon  when  President 
of  France,  which  led  him  to  suppose  that  he  could  dominate  all 
parties  by  taking  ministers  who  represented  none.  He  did  not 
believe  that  the  present  security  or  the  permanent  peace  of  the 
country  could  be  obtained  without  inscribing  the  results  of  the 
war  in  the  sacred  pages  of  the  Constitution  itself,  and  in  enacting 
and  enforcing  measures  of  legislation  that,  if  observed,  should 
make  liberty  and  equal  rights  as  great  a  beneficence  as  without  such 
protection  they  would  be  to  the  poor  and  downcast  a  mockery  and 
a  snare.  So  believing  and  so  acting,  he  was  consistently  conspic 
uous  in  his  devotion  to  the  ends  he  had  in  view.  In  the  fields  in 


18  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THURMAN  ON  THE 

which  his  patriotism  was  exerted  it  may  be  said  of  him,  as  it  was 
of  the  Knights  of  Saint  John  in  the  holy  wars : 

In  the  forefront  of  every  battle  was  seen  his  burnished  mail,  and  in  the  gloomy 
rear  of  every  retreat  was  heard  his  voice  of  constancy  and  of  courage. 

Now  when  his  labors  are  closed  and  he  has  departed  from  among 
us,  this  high  body  rightly  sets  apart  a  day  of  solemn  memorial  to 
his  memory  that,  more  lasting  than  monuments  of  bronze  or  of 
marble,  will  remain  as  long  as  the  records  of  history  endure. 


Address  of  Mr.  THURMAN,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  I  have  always  entertained  the  opinion  that  an 
occasion  like  this — when  the  whole  Senate,  differing  widely  in 
political  opinions,  as  its  members  ever  have  done  and  ever  will  do, 
unite  in  paying  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  deceased  brother — is 
not  a  proper  occasion  for  unmeasured  praise  on  the  one  hand  or 
criticism  on  the  other  of  his  political  life.  OLIVER  P.  MORTON 
was  too  prominent  a  man  in  American  politics,  for  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  to  be  forgotten ;  and  his  friends  and  his  adversaries 
may  safely  trust  to  the  sober  influences  of  time  for  a  correct  esti 
mate  of  his  political  character. 

In  the  brief  remarks  that  I  shall  submit  to-day  I  shall  speak 
of  the  man,  not  of  the  politician.  It  is  true  that  it  is  difficult  to 
separate  the  man  from  the  politician  in  speaking  of  OLIVER  P. 
MORTON,  for  he  lived  and  moved  and  had  his  being  in  the  atmos 
phere  of  politics,  and  in  that  atmosphere  and  by  its  influence  his 
personal  traits  of  character  were  most  strikingly  developed  and 
sharply  defined.  In  any  sphere  of  life  he  would  have  been  a 
remarkable  man,  for  his  ability,  his  energy,  his  determination,  and 
his  industry  were  all  remarkable.  But  practical  politics  was  his 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  19 

true  sphere,  for  in  no  other  occupation  could  he  have  displayed  in 
so  signal  a  manner  that  quickness  of  apprehension,  force  of  logic, 
singular  audacity,  inflexibility  of  purpose,  and  controlling  power 
over  the  opinions  and  actions  of  others,  by  which  he  was  so  emi 
nently  distinguished  and  which  so  well  qualified  him  to  be  a  leader 
among  men. 

Suffering  for  years  from  a  painful  and  hopeless  disease  that  ulti 
mately  terminated  his  life,  we  yet  saw  him,  year  after  year,  perform 
an  amount  of  labor  from  which  the  most  robust  man  might  have 
recoiled  as  from  a  task  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  He  evaded  no  duty 
however  onerous;  he  asserted  his  claim  to  leadership  at  all  times 
and  under  all  circumstances  however  great  might  be  the  sacrifice 
of  comfort,  repose,  or  health.  He  was  not  a  scholar  in  the  broad 
sense  of  the  term,  and  he  did  not  pretend  to  be.  His  speeches 
were  distinguished  by  logical  force  and  earnestness,  and  not  by 
beauty  of  expression,  figures  of  rhetoric,  or  classical  allusions.  He 
always  spoke  for  a  purpose  and  not  for  show,  for  he  was  very  free 
from  vanity.  But  while  his  general  scholarship  was  not  great 
there  were  some  subjects  that  he  had  studied  with  much  care,  and 
he  was  very  remarkable  for  the  quickness  with  which  he  gathered 
and  mastered  the  facts  of  any  subject  debated  in  the  Senate.  He 
was  averse  to  personalities  in  even  the  most  heated  party  debates, 
and  in  social  intercourse  he  was  uniformly  courteous  and  amiable. 
It  is  gratifying  to  me  to  remember  that  often  as  we  were  engaged  in 
discussion,  and  sometimes  very  exciting  discussion,  no  unkind  word 
ever  passed  between  us,  and  our  personal  relations  were  always  kind 
and  friendly. 


20  ADDRESS   OP   MR.    CONKLING   ON   THE 


Address  of  Mr.  CONKLING,  of  New  York. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  in  ancient  times  those  nearest  the  dead  spoke 
in  their  funerals.  Fathers  celebrated  the  bravery  and  achievements 
of  their  sons,  and  the  graces  and  virtues  of  wives  and  of  daughters 
were  publicly  recited  and  extolled  by  those  who  loved  and  mourned 
them  most. 

These  customs  have  been  banished  by  modern  civilization  or  modern 
manners.  Now,  the  fondest  lips  are  sealed,  and  the  ashes  and  the  fame 
of  the  departed  are  no  longer  committed  to  those  who  would  shield 
and  treasure  them  with  the  tender  partiality  of  bereaved  affection. 

It  is  difficult  to  note  a  change  so  great,  in  a  matter  so  deep-rooted 
in  the  heart  of  man — so  hallowed  and  mastered  by  instinct  and 
innate  emotion,  without  wonder  that  the  same  beings  in  different 
generations  should  be  moved  to  such  different  manifestations  of  the 
same  sentiment  and  the  same  sorrow. 

Death  is  nature's  supreme  abhorrence.  The  dark  valley,  with 
its  weird  and  solemn  shadows,  illumined  by  the  rays  of  Christi 
anity  is  still  the  ground  which  man  shudders  to  approach.  The 
grim  portals,  and  the  narrow  house,  seem  in  the  lapse  of  centuries 
to  have  gained  rather  than  lost  in  impressive  and  foreboding  horror. 

It  must  have  been  while  musing  over  this  puzzling  fact  that  an 
illustrious  American — gifted  as  a  poet,  and  therefore  gifted  as  a 
philosopher — wrote  these  graceful,  memorable  words : 

In  the  temple  of  Juno,  at  Elis,  Sleep  and  his  twin-brother,  Death,  were  repre 
sented  as  children  reposing  in  the  arms  of  Night.  On  various  funeral  monuments 
of  the  ancients  the  Genius  of  Death  is  sculptured  as  a  beautiful  youth,  leaning  on 
an  inverted  torch,  in  the  attitude  of  repose,  his  wings  folded  and  his  feet  crossed. 
In  such  peaceful  and  attractive  forms  did  the  imagination  of  ancient  poets  and 
sculptors  represent  death.  And  these  were  men  in  whose  souls  the  religion  of 
Nature  was  like  the  light  of  stars,  beautiful,  but  faint  and  cold!  Strange,  that,  in 
later  days,  this  angel  of  God,  which  leads  us  with  a  gentle  hand  into  the  "  land  of 
the  great  departed,  into  the  silent  land,"  should  have  been  transformed  into  a  mon 
strous  and  terrific  thing!  Such  is  the  spectral  rider  on  the  white  horse;— such  the 
ghastly  skeleton  with  scythe  and  hour-glass ;— the  Reaper,  whose  name  is  Death. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.   MORTON.  21 

Whether  owing  to  the  tendencies  here  suggested,  or  to  other 
promptings,  the  usage  of  paying  public  tribute  to  those  who  have 
gone,  now  admits  to  its  privilege  few  who  stand  in  relations  so  close 
as  brother  Senators. 

When  a  member  of  the  Senate,  weary  with  the  toil  of  years, 
worn  with  labors  which  observe  no  hours,  long  and  harshly  criti 
cised  perhaps  when  the  truth  if  known  would  have  changed  critics 
to  eulogists,  crowned  with  duties  well  done  and  honors  well  earned — 
when  such  an  one,  beckoned  by  the  shadowy  hand,  retreats  from 
the  din  of  life,  and  the  gates  have  closed  behind  him  forever,  it  is 
decorous  that  those  who  are  so  soon  to  follow  him  should  pause, 
and  bear  public  testimony  of  the  esteem  in  which  they  held  him, 
and  of  the  approbation  which  they  know  he  deserved.  Their 
utterances  may  not  add  a  cubit  or  an  hour  to  his  fame,  but  they 
strengthen  and  brighten  the  links  of  the  chain  which  should  bind 
men  and  Senators  together. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  repeat  the  story  of  a  career  which  the 
nation  knows  by  heart. 

The  Senate  has  heard  in  feeling  and  graceful  words  many  inci 
dents  of  a  life  devoted  to  the  public  service,  and  enduringly  asso 
ciated  with  events. grand,  arduous,  and  historic. 

I  rose  only  to  add  my  tribute  of  respect  and  admiration  for  the 
genius  and  the  services  of  a  remarkable  man,  and  to  unite  with  the 
people  of  Indiana  in  the  grief  with  which  they  mourn  the  death 
of  their  illustrious  Senator. 

As  a  party  leader,  he  was  too  great  for  any  party  or  any  State 
readily  to  supply  his  place. 

As  an  efficient,  vigilant,  and  able  representative,  he  had  no  supe 
rior  in  either  House  of  Congress. 

Oppressed  and  crippled  by  bodily  infirmity,  his  mind  never  fal- 


22  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    BURNSIDE   ON   THE 

tered  or  flagged.  Despite  pain  and  sickness,  so  long  as  he  could  be 
carried  to  his  seat  he  was  never  absent  from  the  Senate  or  the  com 
mittee.  No  labor  discouraged  him,  no  contingency  appalled  him, 
no  disadvantage  dismayed  him,  no  defeat  disheartened  him. 

Those  who  encountered  him  in  debate  or  in  affairs  will  never 
forget  his  ability,  his  zeal,  his  industry,  his  energy,  his  fertility,  his 
varied  powers,  or  above  all  his  indomitable  heart.  Living  in  an 
era  of  extraordinary  activities  and  forces,  he  has  left  a  deep  and 
lasting  impress  on  his  times.  He  will  go  down  to  a  far  hereafter, 
not  as  one  who  embellished  and  perpetuated  his  name  by  a  studied 
and  scholastic  use  of  words,  nor  as  a  herald  of  resounding  theories, 
but  rather  as  one  who  day  by  day  on  the  journey  of  life  met  actual 
affairs  and  realities  and  grappled  them  with  a  grasp  too  resolute 
and  quick  to  loiter  for  the  ornament  or  the  advantage  of  protracted 
and  tranquil  meditation. 

He  needs  no  epitaph  but  his  name;  and  though  brass  may 
corrode,  and  marble  molder,  men  will  still  remember  OLIVER 
PERRY  MORTON  as  a  leading  and  manful  defender  of  the  Republic 
in  the  Republic's  most  dire  and  heroic  age. 


Address  of  Mr.  BURNSIDE,  of  Rhode  Island. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  I  will  be  pardoned,  I  am  sure,  for  making 
some  two  or  three  allusions  personal  to  myself  in  speaking  of  our 
distinguished  deceased  brother  Senator. 

My  acquaintance  with  him  began  in  boyhood.  We  were  born 
and  reared  in  the  same  neighborhood.  We  left  our  homes  to  enter 
college  the  same  year,  he  as  a  student  at  Miami  University  and  I 
as  a  cadet  in  the  United  States  Military  Academy. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OP   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  23 

In  consequence  of  these  early  relations  I  have  watched  his  career 
with  great  interest  and  pride.  Our  walks  in  life  led  us  apart  until 
the  war  of  the  rebellion,  during  a  portion  of  which  we  were  inti 
mately  associated,  he  as  governor  of  the  great  State  of  Indiana  and 
I  as  military  commander  of  the  Department  of  the  Ohio.  The 
friendship  that  had  existed  from  boyhood  was  strengthened  by  the 
kind,  strong,  efficient  counsel  and  co-operation  he  gave  me  during 
my  service  in  that  department.  After  the  termination  of  this 
association,  I  naturally  watched  his  career  with  an  increased  interest. 
It  was  with  great  personal  satisfaction  that  I  found  him  the  recog 
nized  leader  of  the  republican  party  upon  this  floor  when  I  joined 
him  here. 

In  all  the  walks  of  life  MORTON  has  proved  himself  a  great  man. 
The  high  position  which  he  attained  was  in  no  sense  due  to  acci 
dent.  No  fortuitous  circumstances  brought  him  into  prominence. 
He  did  not  spring  from  the  humble  walks  of  life  and  rise  through 
great  difficulties  to  eminence ;  nor  did  he  separate  himself  by  self- 
denial  from  a  life  of  ease  and  luxury  with  a  view  to  taking  upon 
himself  the  labors  and  responsibilities  of  a  public  man,  which  latter 
course  is  oftener  harder  to  pursue  than  the  former.  Nor  did  he 
come  from  that  class  who  are  educated  for  the  learned  profeasions, 
from  which  the  stepping-stone  to  public  distinction  is  comparatively 
easy  when  the  aspirants  are  possessed  of  intelligence,  integrity,  and 
industry,  but  he  sprang  from  that  great  conservative  class  which  is 
composed  of  men  engaged  in  agricultural  and  mechanical  pursuits, 
whose  dispositions,  as  a  rule,  are  to  continue  in  the  course  upon 
which  they  enter  until  their  works  are  crowned  with  moderate  suc 
cess  or  ended  in  failure.  MORTON,  however,  broke  from  this  temp 
tation,  (if  it  may  be  so  called,)  and  determined  early  in  life  to 
attain  distinction,  if  possible,  as  a  public  man.  By  dint  of  great 


24  ADDRESS   OF   ME.    BUENSIDE   ON   THE 

industry  and  economy  he  acquired  a  good  education  and  began  the 
study  of  law  under  the  direction  of  one  of  Indiana's  most  sterling 
and  distinguished  men,  Hon.  John  S.  Newman,  and  soon  acquired 
great  proficiency  in  his  profession.  The  example  of  this  accom 
plished  gentleman  for  industry  and  integrity  doubtless  had  a  great 
influence  upon  MORTON'S  after-life. 

From  boyhood  he  was  fond  of  debate  upon  political  topics,  and 
early  attained  prominence  as  a  political  leader.  When  but  thirty- 
three  years  of  age  he  became  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  the  high 
office  of  governor  of  his  native  State,  and  won  during  that  canvass 
a  reputation  as  a  debater  that  followed  him  through  life,  and  which 
at  his  death  was  world- wide.  What  gave  him  his  greatest  strength 
as  a  debater  was  his  great  desire  and  facility  for  learning  and  pre 
senting  the  facts  of  a  case.  He  was  rarely  found  wrong  in  his 
statements,  and  was  always  ready  to  appeal  to  the  records  and  to 
abide  the  results.  Another  prominent  characteristic  was  his  fair 
ness.  Any  fact  claimed  by  his  opponent  and  well  established  by 
the  record  he  always  conceded.  There  was  but  little  repetition  in 
his  speeches.  After  he  had  once  presented  his  facts  or  theories  dis 
tinctly  they  were  dropped  until  some  one  of  his  opponents  made  it 
necessary  to  refer  to  them  again.  He  never  wearied  his  political 
friends  by  too  much  speech,  and  always  occupied  his  opponents. 
He  rarely,  if  ever,  indulged  in  personalities  or  in  frivolities.  It 
is  said  by  those  who  have  known  him  very  intimately  that  he  had 
a  hard  struggle  with  himself  in  early  life  to  break  the  habit  of  in 
dulgence  in  wit  and  ridicule  which  his  keen  sense  of  humor  was 
apt  to  lead  him  into.  Upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion 
MORTON  at  once  sprang  into  still  greater  prominence.  His  great 
services  as  one  of  the  war  governors  have  been  fully  portrayed 
upon  this  occasion,  and  I  will  not  detain  the  Senate  by  reiterating 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  25 

them.  It  will  not  be  amiss,  however,  to  refer  to  a  few  of  his  more 
prominent  characteristics.  His  great  care  and  love  for  the  soldiers 
of  his  State,  not  only  while  they  were  in  the  field  but  after  their 
return  to  their  homes,  won  for  him  their  great  respect  and  affection. 
He  was  eminently  patriotic.  No  sacrifice  was  too  great  for  him  to 
make  in  the  cause  of  his  country. 

He  was  a  lover  of  law  and  order,  and  was  averse  to  being  led 
into  an  arbitrary  exercise  of  authority  by  the  emergencies  of  the 
war.  I  remember  while  I  was  in  command  of  the  Department  of 
the  Ohio,  which  department  embraced  the  State  of  Indiana,  that  I 
had  occasion  to  issue  a  general  order  with  a  view  to  reaching  per 
sons  who  I  thought  were  indulging  in  treasonable  speeches.  Under 
this  order  some  prominent  citizens  were  arrested,  and  among  them 
a  prominent  citizen  of  Ohio,  and  one  of  the  State  senators  of  the 
State  of  Indiana.  MORTON  urgently  argued  with  me  against  the 
wisdom  and  justice  of  the  arrest  of  these  citizens,  and  demanded 
the  release  of  the  State  senator,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was 
one  of  his  most  bitter  political  opponents.  He  had  ambition,  but 
never  allowed  it  to  blind  him  to  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  best 
interests  of  the  country.  He  was  a  prominent  aspirant  for  the 
nomination  by  his  party  at  the  last  presidential  election,  and  was 
doubtless  sorely  disappointed  at  his  failure  to  receive  the  nomi 
nation,  but  when  he  wrote  his  letter  of  advice  to  his  fellow-citizens 
as  to  the  duty  of  the  hour,  all  were  assured  that  this  failure  had 
engendered  in  him  no  ill-will  toward  his  party  or  to  the  distin 
guished  gentleman  who  received  the  nomination,  but  quite  the 
reverse;  he  was  ready  and  anxious  to  give  him  his  full  support  and 
encouragement. 

His  unbounded  affection  for  his  family  was  one  of  his  striking 
characteristics.  His  estimable  wife  was  his  almost  constant  com- 


26  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN  ON  THE 

panion  when  he  was  not  engaged  in  his  public  duties.  His  devo 
tion  to  his  friends  was  marked  in  the  extreme,  which  accounts  for 
the  great  affection,  in  which  he  was  held  by  all  those  who  were 
intimately  associated  with  him. 

MORTON  was  a  great  man.  His  judgment  was  good;  his  power 
of  research  was  great,  his  integrity  was  high,  his  patriotism  was 
lofty,  his  love  of  family  and  friends  unlimited,  his  courage  indom 
itable.  No  feeble  words  of  mine  can  express  the  great  loss  which 
this  body,  his  native  State,  and  our  country  have  sustained  by  his 
death. 

Address  of  Mr.  MORGAN,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  on  an  occasion  such  as  this,  when  a  nation  is 
paying  its  tribute  of  respect  to  a  great  citizen,  it  is  not  fitting  that 
any  section  of  the  Union  should  be  silent.  The  West  has  spoken 
and  the  East  has  answered ;  the  voice  of  sorrow  that  for  months 
past  has  wailed  mournfuly  along  the  shores  of  the  lakes  of  the 
North  is  also  echoed  by  the  sighing  breezes  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
If  this  were  the  house  of  mourning,  where  none  but  those  who  were 
the  beloved  of  the  great  Senator  were  expected  to  speak,  I  should 
feel  that  I  was  compelled  to  remain  silent.  But  it  is  the  Senate 
that  conducts  these  obsequies,  and  the  States  are  all  here  to  par 
ticipate.  Indiana  has  suffered  a  bereavement  in  the  death  of  an 
honored  son  that  touches  the  hearts  of  her  people  with  profound 
grief;  and  Alabama  lays  upon  his  tomb  a  bough  of  her  evergreen 
magnolia,  crowned  with  its  white  emblems  of  peace,  in  token  of  her 
sense  of  the  immortality  of  his  fame,  and  with  it  she  extends  to 
Indiana  the  hand  of  sympathizing  and  honest-hearted  friendship. 

Senator  MORTON  did  not  live  to  see  the  States  all  reassembled  in 
this  Chamber.  Since  1873  the  grand  roll-call  of  the  States  was 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  27 

never  fully  completed  in  his  hearing.  He  was  not  content  that  it 
should  be  completed,  under  his  views  of  the  Constitution,  with  the 
representation  which  was  sent  here,  and  in  this  great  controversy 
States  stood  arrayed  against  him,  but  they  are  now  assembled  at  his 
funeral  rites.  They  are  here  as  members  of  a  bereaved  family. 
They  bow  in  chastened  sorrow  to  the  omnipotent  hand  that  will 
soon  smite  others  of  their  sons  with  death,  and  if  rightly  conscious 
of  the  imperfections  of  their  own  representatives,  and  if  they  are 
properly  considerate  of  duty,  they  are  prepared  to  bury  every  bitter 
resentment  of  the  past,  and  to  cherish  only  the  good  that  has  been 
evolved  through  their  common  trials  and  sufferings  and  even 
through  their  angry  strife. 

If  Senator  MORTON  were  here  in  person,  as  he  will  long  remain 
in  spirit  and  influence,  he  would  realize  that  this  full  Senate  is  a 
power  better  worthy  to  be  made  useful  in  the  high  purposes  of  serv 
ing  the  country  in  promoting  its  great  moral  and  material  interests 
than  as  an  instrumentality  of  strife  and  in  struggles  for  power, 
whether  that  power  is  claimed  by  ambitious  men,  or  by  rival  sec 
tions  of  the  country,  or  by  political  parties. 

He  would  do  all  within  the  range  of  his  great  abilities  to  make 
the  Senate  worthy  of  the  age  and  a  pattern  for  the  statesmen  of 
coming  generations.  He  would  not  waste  his  energies  in  renewing 
conflicts  that  are  ended,  nor  would  he  encourage  us  to  turn  aside 
from  our  practical  duties  to  engage  in  the  fruitless  discussion  of 
past  grievances,  whether  real  or  imaginary.  With  a  heart  truly 
and  fully  American,  and  a  mind  amply  stored  with  treasures  of 
knowledge,  and  with  an  energy  of  will  of  which  the  march  of 
American  progress  is  the  truest  and  most  vivid  illustration,  he 
would  set  to  work  to  build  up  every  waning  industry,  to  renew 
hope  in  every  languishing  heart,  and  to  open  up  new  fields  of 


28  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN  ON  THE 

enterprise  to  the  boundless  energy  of  our  people.  If  he  had  dif 
fered  always  and  everywhere  with  the  people  of  Alabama,  they 
would  not  have  remembered  their  diiferences  a  day  longer  than  he 
had  brought  his  great  powers  to  this  form  of  the  service  of  his 
country. 

It  is  sad  for  the  country  that  a  man  so  capable  and  so  trusted 
should  have  been  removed  while  in  the  meridian  of  his  influence 
and  power. 

Senator  MORTON'S  political  life  was  largely  spent  in  the  midst 
of  war.  To  maintain  the  cause  for  which  he  struggled,  he  believed 
that  he  was  compelled  to  lay  his  hand  on  the  sword  of  military 
power.  He  grasped  it  firmly.  He  wielded  it  without  pause  or 
questioning,  but  with  perfect  loyalty  to  his  country. 

In  this  he  only  did  his  duty ;  for  the  country  of  his  soul's  allegi 
ance  required  it  of  him.  He  could  not  have  done  less.  However 
the  laws  may  otherwise  declare,  his  country  where  he  dwells,  the 
place  that  is  sanctified  with  the  name  of  home,  will  be  the  sovereign 
of  an  honest  man's  heart  and  will  command  his  allegiance. 

When  others  thought  that  the  sword  had  served  its  full  purpose 
and  should  be  sheathed  he  mistrusted  that  it  was  further  needed, 
and  he  held  to  it  with  a  firmer  grasp.  In  this  the  South  was 
opposed  to  him,  and  its  wail  of  anguish  was  bitter  against  him. 
While  he  held  the  sword  suspended  the  South  had  no  shield  for  its 
uncovered  bosom.  It  was  natural  that  its  heart  should  chill  to 
ward  him.  It  would  be  untrue  to  say  that  it  did  not,  and  he  would 
have  despised  the  falsehood.  But  this  attitude  was  changed,  and 
no  man  was  more  ready  than  he  was  to  recognize  the  new  order  of 
things.  Almost  his  dying  words  attest  the  fact. 

His  nature  was  intensely  combative,  but  his  ear  was  ever  ready 
to  listen  to  the  bugles  of  truce.  He  did  not  persecute  in  secret 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  29 

inquisitions.  He  openly  denounced  what  he  conceived  to  be  wrong 
in  his  opponents  and  demanded  the  vengeance  of  the  law.  How 
he  acted  toward  his  friends  we  were  not  in  position  to  know.  He 
was  no  conspirator.  His  nature  was  above  that  mean  level  where 
men  of  great  powers  sometimes  get  their  consent  to  serve  a  cause 
that  they  even  conceive  to  be  just  in  the  dark  and  devious  ways  of 
fraud  and  conspiracy.  Senator  MORTON  was  an  open,  bold,  and 
defiant  antagonist.  His  opponents  always  knew  where  to  find  him, 
and  when  he  meant  to  strike.  In  this  respect  even  those  who  suf 
fered  from  his  blows  learned  to  honor  him. 

To  do  him  justice  in  another  important  respect  it  is  necessary  to 
say  that  he  lived  during  an  era  of  our  history  beset  with  great 
temptations  and  had  the  fullest  opportunity  to  grow  rich  by  stealth, 
and  yet  he  escaped  all  suspicion  of  dishonesty.  He  was  an  honest 
man.  It  is  here  that  the  people  have  planted  a  white  stone,  and 
every  contribution  to  his  honor  will  cluster  about  it  as  the  best 
and  most  enduring  foundation  of  his  immortal  fame. 

His  record  is  before  the  country.  It  is  easily  understood,  bold, 
fearless,  direct,  and  distinct.  His  individuality  was  so  distinctive 
that  it  is  a  rare  occurrence  that  his  name  has  a  fixed  historical  asso 
ciation  with  his  great  contemporaries  as  the  associates  of  his  labors. 
There  is  no  evasion  or  darkness  in  the  definitions  of  his  principles 
or  policies.  Most  of  his  thoughts  connected  with  public  affairs  are 
on  the  records  of  the  Senate.  He  spoke  freely  on  all  subjects  that 
he  discussed,  and  few  important  measures  failed  to  attract  his  atten 
tion.  Yet  the  country  never  tired  of  listening  to  him,  such  was  the 
vigor  of  his  thoughts  and  the  profound  depth  of  his  convictions  and 
the  boldness  of  his  utterances. 

When  such  a  man  is  deceived,  as  all  men  are  liable  to  be  deceived, 
as  to  matters  of  fact  relating  to  the  graver  duties  of  government,  the 


30  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN  ON  THE 

country  is  endangered.  So  much  power  as  he  possessed,  when  mis 
directed,  is  of  necessity  dangerous.  His  record  will  receive  impar 
tial  criticism.  He  would  not  have  asked  that  it  be  forbearing.  It 
contains  no  plea  for  lenient  consideration.  His  opinions  are  too  bold 
and  too  broadly  and  confidently  stated  to  be  drifted  oif  into  neutral 
ground.  They  will  enter  the  conflict  with  self-asserting  energy 
though  their  author  is  no  longer  here  to  defend  them.  In  many 
important  matters  time  alone  will  demonstrate  their  value.  They 
will  always  be  respected.  In  the  most  essential  points  where  dif 
ferences  have  existed  between  him  and  the  people  of  Alabama,  they 
have  been  diiferences  of  opinion.  In  some  respects  those  differences 
were  in  sharp  and  decided  conflict.  But  in  no  respect  was  it  true 
that  either  he  or  they  desired  to  do  wrong  the  one  to  the  other.  The 
hostility  was  not  in  the  intent  or  the  purpose.  It  was  the  conflict 
of  opinions,  too  often,  I  fear,  based  on  misconceptions  of  fact,  the 
correction  of  which  other  evil  influences  rendered  for  the  time 
impossible. 

The  grand  outline  of  the  retrospect  of  American  statesmanship 
is  not  marred,  but  is  rather  rendered  more  pleasing,  as  it  has  also 
become  more  a  cause  of  national  pride,  by  the  rugged  and  isolated 
peak  that  seems  to  have  been  thrown  up  from  lower  depths  by  some 
great  social  and  political  revolution  and  to  have  risen  high  above 
the  elevated  plane  on  which  so  many  monuments  are  raised  to  com 
memorate  our  great  and  deathless  names.  MORTON  builded  his 
own  monument,  no  other  hand  assisting.  To  the  nation  is  only  left 
the  duty  of  inscribing  his  epitaph  upon  it.  This  should  not  be 
written  now.  It  should  be  left  to  a  more  impartial  generation. 

The  great  Senator  rests  in  the  bosom  of  a  generous  and  grateful 
country.  Millions  of  hearts  are  saddened  by  his  loss,  while  they 
beat  with  pride  at  the  mention  of  his  name;  and  thus  are  cherished 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  31 

the  memories  that  we  style  immortal.  In  minds  alive  to  grateful 
remembrances,  and  in  living,  pulsating  hearts,  day  by  day,  the  fame 
and  glory  of  our  dead  statesmen  and  heroes  live.  They  are  storied 
in  books  and  sculptured  in  monuments,  but  they  live  on,  and  on, 
through  ceaseless  years  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  where  they  are 
never  forgotten.  Thus  will  MORTON  live,  and  thus  will  his  fame 
be  cherished  so  long  as  any  who  claim  to  be  American  shall  exist. 
This  is  indeed  a  proud  immortality. 


Address  of  Mr.  BOOTH,  of  California. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  to  epitomize  the  life  and  character  of  OLIVER 
PERRY  MORTON  in  the  few  moments  devoted  to  these  observances 
is  impossible  to  mortal  utterance.  The  stalwart  proportions  of  his 
living  presence  are  but  realized  by  the  void  his  death  has  made. 

But  yesterday  he  was  one  of  us,  of  like  clay  and  passions.  The 
echoes  of  his  voice  have  scarcely  died  in  this  Chamber.  To-day  he 
is  as  far  from  us  as  Demosthenes  or  Abraham  or  the  generations 
that  perished  before  the  flood. 

Less  than  most  men  intellectually  his  equals  does  he  need  the 
voice  of  eulogy.  The  clearness  of  his  purposes,  the  boldness  of  his 
opinions,  his  tireless  activity,  his  indomitable  will,  have  impressed 
"the  very  age  and  body  of  the  time."  His  life  was  a  force  which 
cannot  die. 

That  fireside  criticism  which  dwells  apart  in  the  seclusion  of  its 
own  self-importance  and  would  not  soil  its  dainty  fingers  by  contact 
with  affairs,  which  believes  government  is  a  science  as  exact  as 
mathematics,  that  human  nature  is  plastic  as  clay  and  cold  as  mar 
ble,  may  dwarf  his  image  in  the  penny  mirror  it  holds  up  to  the 
universe  and  in  which  the  only  colossal  figure  it  beholds  is  the 


32  ADDRESS   OP   MR.    BOOTH   ON  THE 

reflection  of  itself;  but  he  has  made  his  own  place  in  history  "safe 
'gainst  the  tooth  of  time  and  razure  of  oblivion." 

He  lived  in  an  heroic  age — this  age — an  age  so  great  that  the 
distance  of  intervening  centuries  will  be  necessary  to  measure  its 
heroism,  its  achievements,  and  its  sacrifices. 

We,  as  Americans,  must  be  excusable  for  believing,  we  should  be 
inexcusable  if  we  did  not  believe,  that  no  political  question  of  graver 
consequence  to  all  succeeding  time  was  ever  confronted  by  any 
people  than  that  which  culminated  in  our  civil  war.  History  will 
record  that  the  war  was  the  inevitable  result  of  an  irrepressible 
conflict  of  moral  forces,  for  which  peace  had  no  arbitrament. 
MORTON'S  life  was  cast  in  a  State  where  this  conflict  of  opinion  was 
eager,  passionate,  and  doubtful.  He  was  at  the  meeting  of  the  cur 
rents  in  the  circling  of  the  maelstrom.  What  to  others  was  a  con 
viction,  a  sentiment,  to  him  became  an  inspiration  and  a  passion. 
He  was  intensely  American.  For  his  large  nature,  and  for  his 
great  ambition  too,  the  continent  was  none  too  wide.  That  his 
country  should  play  a  subordinate  part  in  human  affairs  never 
entered  his  imagination  to  conceive.  He  would  have  enlarged  the 
bounds  of  destiny  to  give  it  scope  and  amplitude.  The  sentiment 
that  this  is  a  "nation,  one,  indivisible,  indestructible,"  so  permeated 
his  intellect  that  any  other  seemed  political  profanation  and  sacrilege. 
With  him  this  was  not  a  theory  of  construction,  but  a  source  and 
center;  not  an  abstraction,  but  living  faith.  Not  Webster  has 
expressed  his  faith  with  more  massive  strength,  nor  Baker  with 
more  impassionate  fervor. 

No  man  had  an  earlier  or  clearer  apprehension  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  war  on  whose  verge  we  stood  and  the  tremendous  issues  it 
involved.  Of  Titan  mold,  near  to  nature,  elemental  powers  were 
his  familiars.  He  had  an  instinctive  sense  of  the  awful  forces  that 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  33 

are  unleashed  by  war.     He  knew  that  in  the  air,  so  still  it  would 
not  stir  the  floating  down,  the  fury  of  the  tempest  slept. 

In  the  halcyon  days,  amid  delusive  promises  of  peace,  he  saw  that 
war  was  inevitable,  and  rose  to  the  supreme  height  of  the  occasion. 
In  a  speech  on  the  22d  of  November,  1860,  which  rang  through 
the  country  like  a  call  to  arms,  he  said : 

Seven  years  is  but  a  day  in  the  life-time  of  a  nation,  and  I  would  rather  come 
out  of  a  struggle  at  the  end  of  that  time  defeated  in  arms,  conceding  independence 
to  successful  revolution,  than  to  purchase  present  peace  by  the  concession  of  a  prin 
ciple  that  must  inevitably  explode  this  nation  into  small,  dishonored  fragments. 

He  flunked  nothing,  concealed  nothing.  He  knew  the  uncertain 
ties  of  war,  its  dread  sacrifices,  and  declared  that  all  these,  though 
followed  by  defeat,  were  better  than  inaction  or  the  compromise  of 
a  principle  he  deemed  essential  to  the  existence  of  any  republic  on 
this  continent. 

This  was  at  once  his  confession  of  political  faith  and  the  key 
note  of  his  character.  In  the  cause  he  championed,  he  would  have 
dared  fate  itself  to  the  lists,  and  matched  his  will  against  the  courses 
of  the  stars. 

There  is  neither  time  nor  necessity  to  trace  his  career.  To  leave 
out  MORTON  and  his  influence  would  be  to  rewrite  the  history  of 
this  country  for  the  past  eighteen  years,  and  to  modify  it  for  all 
time  to  come.  In  the  great  struggle  on  which  the  existence  of  the 
Union  was  staked  he  held  the  central  fort.  No  living  man  can 
tell  what  the  result  would  have  been  if  he  had  not  been  where  and 
what  he  was. 

In  character  his  will  dominated  his  intellect,  great  as  that  was. 
He  seemed  incapable  of  indecision.  To  resolve  was  to  leave  doubt 
behind.  Thought,  resolution,  action,  were  coinstant. 

As  a  debater  he  was  an  athlete  trained  down  to  pure  muscle.  In 
speech,  careless  of  the  graces  of  oratory  and  polish  of  style,  his 


34  ADDRESS   OF   ME.    BOOTH   ON   THE 

earnestness  enchained  attention,  his  directness  carried  conviction, 
and  there  was  a  natural  symmetry  in  the  strength  of  his  statement 
above  the  reach  of  art. 

He  was  a  partisan;  instinct  and  experience  taught  him  that 
organization  was  essential  to  the  triumph  of  any  political  principle 
or  the  successful  administration  of  a  popular  government.  He  was 
a  born  leader,  conscious  of  his  power  and  jealous  of  his  right  to 
lead.  He  was  ambitious;  but  blessed  is  the  memory  of  him  whose 
ambition  is  at  one  with  the  best  aspirations  of  humanity,  whose 
death  is  a  loss  to  the  weak,  and  whose  grave  is  wet  with  the  tears 
of  the  humble  and  the  despised. 

Large  brained,  large  framed,  and  brawny  muscled,  his  vigorous 
health,  freedom  of  motion,  physical  independence,  manly  presence, 
were  his  joy  and  pride,  and  a  part  of  that  full  endowment  of  mind 
and  body  which  gave  him  commanding  rank.  But  when  at  life's 
meridian  he  was  stricken  with  the  cruel  paralysis  from  which  he 
was  never  to  recover,  he  accepted  his  lot  without  repining.  What 
to  another  would  have  been  a  warning  to  quit  active  service  and  an 
excuse  for  ease  and  rest,  to  him  was  the  occasion  of  increased  ex 
ertion  and  mental  activity.  The  broken  sword  only  made  the 
combat  closer. 

When  the  fatal  symptoms  of  his  malady  appeared  some  months 
before  his  death,  he  said  to  a  friend  that  he  realized  the  end  had 
come,  but  he  felt  his  career  was  incomplete,  his  life-work  not 
finished.  Perhaps  he  felt,  too,  that  death  was  stepping  between 
him  and  the  great  prize  of  his  personal  ambition.  He  knew  the 
night  was  settling  on  the  home  of  which  his  love  was  the  day- 
spring. 

From  that  time  the  American  people  watched  the  wasting  sands 
of  his  life  and  counted  his  failing  pulse.  He  fought  death  as  an 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.  MORTON.      35 

equal  for  every  inch  of  time  until  "  worn  out/' — worn  out  by  long 
suffering  and  hard  conflict,  he  yielded  to  the  conqueror  of  all. 

However  long  expected,  the  death  of  one  we  honor  or  love  comes 
at  last  as  a  shock.  No  preparation  can  take  away  its  final  sudden 
ness.  There  is  not  a  precinct  in  all  this  broad  land  where  MORTON'S 
death  was  not  felt.  The  nation  was  bereaved.  His  State  was  his 
chief  mourner.  Political  friends  and  opponents  vied  with  each 
other  to  honor  his  memory.  A  hundred  thousand  men,  women,  and 
children  took  a  last  look  at  his  face,  softened  and  refined  by  death, 
every  trace  of  suffering,  every  mark  of  conflict  gone.  On  a  chill 
November  afternoon  a  vast  concourse  followed  him  to  the  grave. 
The  shades  of  night  were  falling  when  the  last  rite  was  spoken 
and  the  great  crowd  dispersed,  leaving  him  alone  with  the  dead. 

There  will  be  music  and  song,  revelry  and  mirth.  "  The  seasons 
in  their  bright  round  will  come  and  go;  hope,  and  joy,  and  great 
ambition  will  rise  up  as  they  have  risen."  Generations  will  pass 
on  the  swift  flight  of  years.  Battle-storms  will  smite  the  earth, 
peace  smile  upon  it,  plenty  crown  it,  love  bless  it.  History  will 
write  great  chapters  in  the  book  of  time.  He  will  come  no  more. 
His  life  is  "blended  with  the  mysterious  tide  which  bears  upon  its 
current"  events,  institutions,  empire,  in  the  awful  sweep  of  destiny. 
Nor  praise  nor  censure,  nor  love  nor  hate,  "nothing  can  touch  him 
further." 


Address  of  Mr.  ANTHONY,  of  Rhode  Island. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  born  a  leader  of  men, 
with  the  sagacity  to  perceive,  with  the  judgment  to  determine,  with 
the  courage  to  execute.  Had  he  chosen  arms  for  his  profession,  he 
would  have  made  a  great  general,  or  he  might  have  rivaled  the 


36  ADDRESS  OF  ME.  ANTHONY  ON  THE 

fame  of  the  naval  hero  whose  illustrious  name  he  bore.  In  what 
ever  pursuit,  he  would  not  have  failed  of  eminence,  for  he  pos 
sessed  the  essential  elements  of  strength.  To  a  will  which  nothing 
could  subdue  he  joined  an  industry  which  nothing  could  fatigue,  a 
capacity  for  labor  seldom  rivaled  in  the  annals  of  American  states 
manship.  Taking  little  upon  authority,  he  applied  himself  to  the 
original  source  of  investigation  and  thoroughly  informed  himself 
upon  every  matter  on  which  he  w"as  required  to  act.  No  member 
of  this  body  gave  a  more  uniformly  intelligent  vote;  and  this  was 
true  of  small  matters  as  well  as  of  great.  His  comprehension 
grasped  every  subject  of  our  deliberations.  Nothing  was  too  form 
idable  for  him  to  undertake;  nothing  was  so  minute  as  to  escape  his 
observation.  Feebler  than  any  of  his  associates  in  physical  health, 
he  was  surpassed  by  none  of  them  in  the  amount  of  labor  which  he 
accomplished.  He  did  not  recognize  in  his  infirmities  a  reason  for 
avoiding  any  duty  imposed  upon  him,  or  that  he  imposed  upon 
himself.  The  mind  dominated  the  body  and  compelled  its  enfeebled 
and  exhausted  functions  to  perform  the  full  service  of  a  vigorous 
organization. 

Deeply  impressed  with  the  truth  of  his  convictions,  he  supported 
them  with  an  earnestness  born  of  sincerity,  with  a  fullness  of  in 
formation  due  to  his  marvelous  habit  of  industry,  and  with  a  power 
that  sprung  from  large  natural  ability  disciplined  by  severe  training; 
but  he  supported  them  only  in  fair  and  manly  debate.  He  never 
indulged  in  trickery;  he  seemed  to  disdain  even  the  trickery  of 
rhetoric.  The  solid  logic  of  his  arguments  was  encumbered  by 
little  ornament,  and  his  array  of  facts  depended  for  their  effect, 
apart  from  their  inherent  force,  upon  the  clearness  of  his  statement 
and  the  strength  of  his  presentation. 

Simple  in  his  manner,  frugal  in  his  habits,  he  maintained  through 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  37 

a  life  devoted  to  the  public  service  an  honorable  poverty,  content  to 
support  the  dignity  of  official  position  upon  the  emolument  which 
the  law  assigned  to  it. 

I  do  not  propose  to  attempt  an  analysis  of  his  character  or  to 
repeat  the  story  of  his  life  that  has  been  so  well  told, — of  his  early 
discipline  in  the  stern  but  healthful  school  of  poverty;  of  the  won 
derful  executive  power,  the  vigor,  the  foresight,  the  bold  prudence, 
the  patriotism  which  he  exhibited  in  the  gubernatorial  chair  of  his 
native  State;  of  his  long  and  distinguished  service  in  this  Chamber; 
of  the  heroic  struggle  which  he  held  with  mortal  disease,  sustaining 
life  by  his  indomitable  will,  which  seemed  to  gather  to  itself  the 
energy  of  every  failing  organ,  and  with  the  accumulated  strength 
to  hurl  defiance  at  the  power  of  death.  But  the  supreme  hour 
arrived,  and  he  obeyed  the  inevitable  summons,  as  all  who  went 
before  him  had  done,  as  all  who  come  after  him  must  do,  and  with 
the  affecting  words  "  I  am  worn  out,"  he  yielded  up  a  life  which  he 
had  identified  with  the  history  of  his  country  by  wise  counsels,  by 
brave  leadership,  by  solid  achievements.  He  died  in  the  prime  and 
vigor  of  his  intellectual  strength  and  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness. 
Yet  we  may  not  call  that  life  a  short  one  whose  work  if  distributed 
over  the  allotted  period  of  human  existence  would  have  crowned 
the  three-score  years  and  ten  with  an  honorable  and  an  enduring 
record. 

Mr.  President,  the  shaft  of  death  has  been  hurled  in  this  Chamber 
of  late  with  fearful  frequency,  sparing  neither  eminence,  nor  use 
fulness,  nor  length  of  service.  No  one  can  predict  where  it  will 
next  strike,  whose  seat  will  next  be  vacated.  With  our  faces  to  the 
setting  sun  we  tread  the  declining  path  of  life,  and  the  shadows 
lengthen  and  darken  behind  us;  the  good,  the  true,  the  brave  fall 
before  our  eyes,  but  the  Republic  survives.  The  stream  of  events 


38  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    WADLEIGH   ON   THE 

flows  steadily  on,  and  the  agencies  that  seemed  to  direct  and  control 
its  current,  to  impel  or  to  restrain  its  force,  sink  beneath  its  surface, 
which  they  disturb  merely  by  a  ripple. 


Address  of  Mr.  WADLEIGH,  of  New  Hampshire. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  my  acquaintance  with  the  late  Senator  MORTON 
began  with  my  admission  to  a  seat  in  this  Chamber  in  1873.  Soon 
after,  at  his  request,  I  was  placed  upon  the  committee  of  which  he 
was  chairman.  Personal  contact  with  him  increased  the  admiration 
and  respect  which  his  great  ability  and  patriotic  services  had  created 
in  my  mind  and  led  to  feelings  of  friendship,  on  my  part  at  least, 
which  induce  me  to  pay  this  humble  tribute  to  his  memory. 

OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  essentially  a  self-made  man,  the  architect 
of  his  own  fortune.  Obscurity  shadowed  his  early  life.  Four  years 
were  spent  by  him  in  a  hatter's  shop.  An  unquenchable  thirst  for 
knowledge  and  a  sleepless  ambition  impelled  him  to  acquire  an 
education,  which  he  did  by  arduous  endeavor,  and  at  an  early  age 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  His  great  ability  was  soon  recognized, 
and  when  but  twenty-nine  years  old  he  was  chosen  a  circuit  judge 
by  the  Legislature  of  Indiana.  But  a  nature  like  his  could  not  be 
satisfied  with  the  calm  repose  of  the  bench.  At  the  end  of  a  year 
he  resigned  and  returned  to  the  conflicts  of  his  profession.  Events 
were  soon  to  place  him  in  a  broader,  loftier  arena  of  action  than 
any  tribunal  of  justice.  The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise  in 
1854  aroused  a  storm  of  indignation  which  swept  over  the  Northern 
States  like  a  whirlwind  and  seemed  for  a  time  to  have  annihilated 
the  old  political  organizations.  Among  the  ardent  and  generous 
young  men  who  then  severed  their  party  tics  to  lead  the  popular 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  39 

movement  which  culminated  in  the  formation  of  the  republican 
party  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  first  and  foremost. 

Such  was  his  recognized  capacity  for  leadership  that  iu  1856, 
when  only  thirty-three  years  of  age,  he  was  nominated  by  acclama 
tion  the  republican  candidate  for  governor  of  Indiana.  In  the 
canvass  that  followed  he  exhibited  pre-eminent  ability,  but  was 
defeated.  His  triumph  was  only  postponed.  In  1860  he  was 
chosen  lieutenant-governor,  and,  by  the  election  of  Governor  Lane 
to  this  Senate,  made  the  chief  magistrate  of  his  native  State. 

Hardly  had  he  taken  his  seat  when  the  grand  drama  of  the  civil 
war  opened  and  cast  upon  him  labors,  cares,  and  responsibilities 
such  as  few  men  could  bear.  He  was  equal  to  the  great  emergency. 
During  the  four  long,  bloody  years  of  gigantic  warfare  his  unpar 
alleled  executive  ability  attracted  the  attention  and  admiration  of 
the  whole  country.  He  seemed  able  to  foresee  and  to  provide  for 
every  contingency.  He  created  a  great  arsenal,  which  not  only 
supplied  the  needs  of  Indiana,  but  those  of  other  States  and  some 
times  those  of  the  nation.  He  contracted  for  and  furnished  vast 
stores  of  clothing  and  provisions  for  the  soldiers  of  the  Union. 
Again  and  again  he  raised  troops  before  they  were  called  for,  so 
that  a  single  telegraphic  dispatch  from  Washington  hurled  them 
like  thunderbolts  to  the  crimsoned  edge  of  battle.  Inspired  by  his 
energy  Indiana  became  a  vast  camp.  Her  patriotic  women  vied 
with  each  other  in  their  devotion  to  their  country ;  the  valor  of  her 
sons  won  unfading  glory  on  numerous  blood-stained  fields.  Neigh 
boring  States  threatened  with  invasion  looked  for  aid  to  her  and  her 
great  governor.  Yet  he  had  to  contend  with  an  opposition  which 
organized  a  conspiracy  whose  net-work  spread  over  the  whole  State, 
threatening  to  wrap  it  in  the  flames  of  civil  war.  When  by  a 
political  revolution  all  the  offices  of  the  State,  except  his  own,  were 


40  ADDEESS   OF   ME.    WADLEIGH   ON   THE 

intrusted  to  his  opponents,  he  appealed  to  the  loyalty  of  his  people 
for  means  to  carry  on  the  government  and  prosecute  the  war  for 
the  Union. 

By  private  subscription,  by  the  assumption  of  staggering  liabili 
ties  which  threatened  to  ruin  himself  and  his  friends,  he  met  the 
indebtedness  of  the  State,  paid  her  governmental  expenses,  and 
raised,  fed,  armed,  disciplined,  and  sent  to  the  field  thousands  of 
her  bravest  sons.  Fired  by  a  sublime  patriotism,  he  defended  the 
cause  of  his  country  and  urged  her  children  to  preserve  her  from 
destruction.  The  history  of  that  stupendous  conflict  contains  no 
more  glorious  record  than  his. 

In  1864  he  was  again  elected  governor,  and  in  1867  he  took  his 
seat  in  this  Chamber  as  a  Senator  from  Indiana.  That  seat  he  held 
more  than  ten  years,  to  the  day  of  his  death.  His  course  and  his 
achievements  here  are  read  and  known  of  all  men  and  are  a  part  of 
the  history  of  the  time.  Here,  upon  a  new  arena,  he  supplemented 
his  lofty  reputation  for  administrative  energy  by  one  equally  lofty 
for  intellectual  power  in  discussing  and  solving  the  greatest  and 
gravest  questions.  As  much  as  any  other  Senator,  he  led  the  debates 
and  guided  the  action  of  this  body.  The  last  ten  years  of  his  life 
were  one  constant  and  hopeless  struggle  with  the  incurable  disease 
from  whose  grasp  there  was  no  escape,  and  which  day  by  day 
steadily  approached  the  citadel  of  life.  He  knew  that  his  days 
were  numbered  and  were  few ;  yet  he  looked  firmly  in  the  face  of 
the  relentless,  torturing,  conquering  enemy  and  kept  on  his  way. 
He  shirked  no  labor,  however  arduous ;  he  left  no  duty  unperformed. 
His  devotion  to  duty  was  heroic.  His  journey  to  the  Pacific  coast 
in  the  last  months  of  his  life  was  marked  by  prodigies  of  herculean 
labor.  Ease,  comfort,  nay,  even  life  itself  seemed  of  little  conse 
quence  to  him  when  compared  with  the  imperious  duty  to  which  he 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  41 

seemed  to  have  bound  himself  of  preserving  the  results  of  the  civil 
war  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  forever.  Worn  out  by 
ceaseless  labor  in  the  performance  of  public  duties,  in  the  armor  of 
battle  he  calmly  met  the  stroke  of  death. 

In  robust  manliness  the  intellect  of  Senator  MORTON  was  unex 
celled.  His  speeches  were  marked  by  logical  force,  clear  percep 
tion,  and  a  strength  of  statement  which  resembled  demonstration. 
Though  destitute  of  rhetoric  and  bare  of  ornament,  their  massive 
force  almost  silenced  doubt  and  compelled  conviction.  Even  his 
extemporaneous  efforts  had  the  symmetry  of  labored  production. 

Like  most  really  great  men  the  deceased  Senator  was  profoundly 
sincere  and  earnest.  He  despised  the  petty  trickery  of  politics. 
Incapable  of  treachery,  he  was  slow  to  suspect  it  in  others.  Con 
fident  in  his  strength,  he  scorned  the  arts  of  weakness.  He  had, 
too,  the  generosity  and  magnanimity  which  are  inseparable  from 
true  greatness.  No  party  conflicts  tinged  his  personal  relations  with 
bitterness.  Nor  can  I  believe  that  he  was  not  a  lover  of  peace. 
But  he  desired  a  peace  based  upon  justice,  and  therefore  enduring 
forever.  He  could  not  accept  a  peace  which  he  believed  was  based 
upon  injustice  and  wrong.  Against  wrong  and  injustice  of  all  kinds, 
and  upon  whomsoever  exercised,  he  fought  with  indomitable  courage ' 
and  unbending  will.  In  his  tomb  lies  the  boldest  champion  of  the 
oppressed,  the  sternest  foe  of  oppression.  His  sympathies  were 
bounded  by  no  lines  of  creed  nor  condition  nor  race,  but  were  broad 
as  humanity.  In  the  last  days  of  his  life  he  sought  to  cover  with 
the  eegis  of  his  great  name  the  despised  and  hated  Chinese  immi 
grants  of  the  Pacific  slope.  He  was  equally  regardless  of  popularity 
in  his  advocacy  of  the  claim  of  women  to  political  rights. 

His  integrity  was  untarnished.  Every  attack  upon  it  left  it 
brighter  than  before.  Plain,  simple,  and  frugal  in  his  habits,  after 


42  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    MITCHELL   ON   THE 

a  long  and  illustrious  public  life  he  died  in  comparative  poverty. 
He  had  an  uncompromising  hatred  of  political  bribery  and  corrup 
tion  whether  in  friend  or  foe.  Those  of  us  who  heard  can  never 
forget  his  appeals  to  us  to  thrust  from  this  Chamber  a  political  friend 
who  was  believed  to  have  gained  an  election  by  bribery. 

No  quality  was  more  conspicuous  in  the  character  of  Senator 
MORTON  than  his  lofty  patriotism.  Ardently  loving  his  country, 
he  sought  to  make  it  a  temple  of  liberty,  to  which  might  come  the 
oppressed  and  down-trodden  of  all  races,  where  universal  education 
should  diffuse  its  blessings,  in  which  might  dwell  in  security  and 
peace  a  free,  happy,  and  united  people. 

To  that  cause  he  devoted  himself;  to  it  he  gave  the  strength  of 
his  intellect  and  the  warmth  of  his  heart,  and  in  it  he  never  faltered 
till  there  came  to  his  bed-side  the  summons  of  all-conquering  Death. 
Linked  to  that  cause,  his  fame  will  endure  till  history  shall  have 
perished  and  its  records  shall  be  wrapped  in  the  darkness  of  endless 
night. 


Address  of  Mr.  MITCHELL,  of  Oregon. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  the  high  estimation  in  which  Senator  MORTON 
was  held  by  the  people  of  the  State  I  in  part  represent  on  this  floor, 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  from  the  day  I  first  made  his  acquaint 
ance,  in  February,  1873,  until  his  death,  he  was  my  ardent,  un 
swerving,  personal  friend,  forbids  that  I  should  remain  silent  now. 

Oregon,  no  less  than  Indiana,  mourns  the  death  of  a  great  man. 
The  telegraphic  flash  that  told  of  his  departure,  although  not  unex 
pected,  touched  the  hearts  of  her  people  with  a  pang  of  unmistaka 
ble  sadness;  clothed  her  dwellings,  her  churches,  her  temples  of 
justice,  her  executive,  legislative,  and  administrative  departments 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.  MORTON.      43 

in  the  habiliments  of  mourning.  And  now  here,  in  this  seat  of  his 
former  greatness  and  from  which  for  ten  long  years  his  words  of 
wisdom  and  power  went  forth  challenging  the  admiration  of  friend 
and  foe  alike  and  giving  direction  to  the  policy  of  States,  the  State 
of  Oregon,  through  one  of  her  representatives,  would  crave  the  high 
privilege  of  contributing  a  word  to  his  memory ;  of  placing  upon 
his  tomb  a  single  wreath,  formed  though  it  may  be  of  wild  flowers, 
gathered  promiscuously  on  a  distant  shore  and  wrought  into  shape 
by  unskillful  hands. 

Senator  MORTON  visited  Oregon  during  the  past  summer  and 
came  in  contact  with  many  of  her  people  of  both  political  parties. 
And  although  prior  to  his  going,  while  his  great  ability  was  con 
ceded  by  all,  he  was  regarded  by  many  who  had  never  met  him  as 
cold,  selfish,  repellant,  when  he  came  away,  as  I  had  occasion  to  learn 
by  traveling  through  the  State  shortly  afterward,  this  opinion  had 
radically  changed ;  and  it  was  my  pleasure  to  hear  many  of  the  lead 
ing  men  of  the  democratic  party  of  that  State  testify  in  words  of 
unqualified  praise,  not  only  as  to  his  goodness  of  heart,  his  kindness 
of  manner,  his  amiable  disposition,  and  his  courteous  demeanor  to 
ward  all,  but  also  as  to  their  belief  in  the  integrity  of  all  his  pur 
poses. 

It  is  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  public  men  to  be  misjudged  by 
those  who  know  them  not.  Partisan  misrepresentation  has  done 
more  in  the  years  that  are  past,  and  is  doing  more  to-day,  to  debauch 
public  virtue  and  lower  the  standard  of  national  integrity  in  the 
estimation  of  the  masses  than  has  the  aggregated  actual  shortcomings 
of  all  our  public  men.  And  perhaps  no  man  with  equal  position  of 
power  and  influence  in  the  nation  was  ever  more  misunderstood  by 
those  who  did  not  know  him  personally  than  was  OLIVER  P.  MOR 
TON.  By  those  who  did  have  the  fortune  to  know  him  well,  aside 


44  ADDRESS   OF   ME.    MITCHELL   ON   THE 

from  any  considerations  arising  from  his  eminent  public  life,  his  true, 
sympathizing  heart,  his  gentleness  of  manner,  his  uniform  kindness 
will  be  cherished  in  grateful  remembrance  to  the  end  of  life. 

And  it  was  in  my  judgment  this  trait  in  his  character,  this  desire 
to  befriend  the  helpless,  to  sustain  the  oppressed,  to  lift  up  the  lowly 
and  the  down-trodden,  more  than  anything  else  that  caused  him  in 
these  halls  year  after  year  to  sustain  with  more  than  Roman  gran 
deur  the  cause  of  the  colored  people  of  the  South.  No  right  of 
theirs,  civil  or  political,  was  ever  stricken  down  with  his  consent, 
or  without  his  manly  protest  being  recorded  against  the  act.  No 
opportunity  ever  escaped  him  of  saying  a  kind  word  in  their  behalf, 
or  of  doing  any  act  that  would  better  their  condition  or  tend  to  ad 
vance  their  prosperity.  He  was  the  friend  of  the  colored  race,  as 
the  record  of  his  public  life  will  abundantly  testify;  and  in  his 
death  their  cause  in  the  national  Senate  has  lost  one  of  its  ablest 
champions  and  most  valiant  defenders.  Around  his  tomb  they  in 
future  years  will  in  countless  numbers  gather  in  the  native  simplicity 
of  undisguised  gratitude  to  testify  their  reverence  for  his  memory, 
while  his  name  will  live  with  them  as  a  household  word  to  be  taught 
to  their  children  and  their  children's  children  down  through  many 
generations. 

Mr.  President,  it  was  my  fortune  to  serve  with  Governor  MOR 
TON  on  the  Committee  on  Privileges  and  Elections  from  the  time  I 
took  my  seat  in  the  Senate  until  his  death,  a  period  of  over  four  and 
a  half  years.  During  this  period  the  amount  of  work  performed 
by  him  as  chairman  of  that  committee  was  prodigious.  The  various 
contests  for  seats  in  this  body,  the  great  presidential  controversy  of 
the  last  year  involving  investigations  by  that  committee  into  the 
elections  in  several  States,  were  well  calculated  to  tax  the  physical 
endurance  of  the  most  vigorous  constitution  and  ruffle  the  disposi- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  45 

tion  of  the  most  patient  mind.  Yet  through  all  these  years  of  ex 
citing  interest,  of  almost  superhuman  work  upon  the  part  of  the 
chairman  of  that  committee,  I  never  once  knew  him  to  be  late  to  a 
committee  meeting,  never  saw  him  in  the  least  disturbed  in  temper; 
on  the  contrary,  always  patient,  affable,  companionable;  always 
meeting  his  colaborers  with  a  smile  of  welcome,  always  parted  with 
words  of  kindness.  There  it  was,  Mr.  President,  I  learned  to  love 
him  and  appreciate  his  noble  soul ;  there  I  estimated  the  high  qual 
ities  of  his  heart — those  of  his  mind  were  known  throughout  the 
world;  and  there  I  learned  how  very  false,  how  severely  unjust, 
was  any  criticism  that  would  rob  him  of  those  qualities  of  true 
gentleness,  of  high  sense  of  honor,  of  unreserved  friendship,  so  pe 
culiarly  characteristic  of  his  whole  nature. 

Mr.  President,  a  great  man  and,  knowing  him  as  I  did,  I  am  con 
strained  to  say,  a  good  man  has  fallen ;  not  in  the  morning  of  active 
life,  nor  yet  in  the  "sere  and  yellow  leaf,"  but  in  the  meridian  of 
his  usefulness  and  power.  The  solemnity  of  this  hour,  these  crowded 
galleries,  these  emblems  of  mourning,  these  idle  hands  and  attentive 
ears  all  unite  in  expressions  of  heart-felt  sorrow.  The  voice  of 
partizanship  is  hushed  in  this  Chamber  to-day  and  throughout  the 
nation  as  well,  for  all  the  people  and  the  people's  representatives 
stand  with  bowed  heads  in  profound  respect  at  the  tomb  of  one  of 
the  nation's  greatest  men.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  can  but 
feel  that  a  power  in  the  elements  of  its  ever-living  existence,  its  con 
tinuing  intellectual  conflicts,  has  departed,  that  one  of  its  greatest 
lights  has  gone  out  in  the  darkness  of  death  forever.  How  rapidly 
are  the  men  whose  voices  have  been  heard  in  these  halls  being  sum 
moned  to  that  "  undiscovered  country  from  whose  bourne  no  trav 
eler  returns."  In  the  less  than  five  years  that  I  have  been  here 
nine  of  those  who  have  sat  here  during  that  time  have  gone  down 


46  ADDKESS   OF   MR.    PADDOCK   ON  THE 

"into  the  dark  valley," — "Wilson,  Sumner,  Buckingham,  Ferry, 
Johnson,  Pratt,  Caperton,  Bogy,  and  MORTON.     Truly 

Our  lives  are  rivers,  gliding  free 
To  that  unfathomed  boundless  sea— 

The  silent  grave. 

Thither  all  earthly  pomp  and  boast 
Boll,  to  be  swallowed  up  and  lost 

In  one  dark  wave. 

Well  did  the  poet  say — 

Oh,  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud? 
Like  a  fast-flitting  meteor,  a  fast-flying  cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave, 
He  passeth  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the  grave. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

The  hand  of  the  king  that  the  scepter  hath  borne, 
The  brow  of  the  priest  that  the  miter  hath  worn, 
The  eye  of  the  sage  and  the  heart  of  the  brave 
Are  hidden  and  lost  in  the  depths  of  the  grave. 

Oh !  the  capacity  and  the  remorselessness  of  that  grave  to  which 
we  are  all  so  rapidly  hastening. 

Earth  has  hosts,  but  thou  canst  show 

Many  a  million  for  her  one; 
Through  thy  gates  the  mortal  flow 
Has  for  countless  years  rolled  on. 
Back  from  the  tomb 
No  step  has  come; 

There  fixed  till  the  last  trumpet's  sound 
Shall  bid  thy  prisoners  be  unbound. 

Senator  MORTON  is  dead,  but  the  record  of  his  life  shall  live 
through  the  centuries,  casting  light,  and  not  gloom,  upon  the  page 
of  the  faithful  historian  that  shall  record  it.  It  shall  be  to  his  mem 
ory  a  mausoleum  more  enduring  than  that  of  marble,  for  there  will 
it  be  written  in  imperishable  sentences,  "  He  was  in  the  nation's  fo 
rum  fidus  et  audax  and  in  the  walks  of  private  lifefidvg  Achates. 


Address  of  Mr.  PADDOCK,  of  Nebraska. 
Mr.  PRESIDENT,  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  the  great  trans-Mis 
souri  country,  whom  in  part  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  upon  this 
floor,  whose  interests  Senator  MORTON  always  advocated  and  de- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  47 

defended,  whose  earnest,  faithful  friend  he  always  was,  I  beg  to  add 
my  poor,  brief  word  of  eulogy  to  those  which  have  already  been  so 
fitly,  so  eloquently  spoken  here  to-day. 

I  never  saw  Senator  MORTON  rise  to  address  the  Senate  during 
our  brief  service  together  here  when  I  was  not  oppressed  by  the  fear 
that  it  might  be  his  last  effort  in  this  Chamber.  Indeed  he  appeared 
to  me  as  one  standing  ever  in  the  very  shadow  of  the  uplifted  hand 
of  the  angel  of  death,  ready  and  waiting  for  the  always  impending, 
the  always  expected  blow. 

He  rose  from  his  chair  with  great  difficulty,  and  often  undoubt 
edly  with  much  pain.  Frequently  while  speaking  he  was  compelled, 
from  sheer  physical  exhaustion,  to  resume  his  seat;  and  some  of  the 
greatest  efforts  of  his  life  were  made  while  sitting  in  yonder  chair. 
A  less  determined  spirit  would  have  succumbed  to  so  serious  a 
physical  derangement;  but  his  great  intellect  seemed  to  become 
clearer,  brighter,  more  vigorous,  his  iron  will  to  strengthen,  his  moral 
courage  to  increase,  as  his  physical  organism  became  weaker  from 
the  attacks  of  the  insidious  disease  that  was  slowly  but  surely  under 
mining  it. 

I  have  seen  the  mighty  oak,  with  his  giant  bole  symmetrical  and 
strong,  with  its  wealth  of  graceful  limbs,  with  its  glory  of  leaf  and 
shade — forming,  all  in  all,  one  of  the  highest  types  of  blended  power 
and  beauty  in  nature — a  very  monarch  among  his  fellows,  to  whom 
they  seemed  to  mutely  bow,  as  if  with  acknowledgment  of  primacy. 
Afterward  I  have  seen  this  wonder  of  the  forest — which  nature  had 
so  lavishly  expended  her  forces  to  upbuild,  and  which  had  during 
many  generations  withstood  the  assaults  of  the  angry  tempests,  gain 
ing  in  each  struggle  increased  development  and  strength — suddenly 
rent  and  riven,  a  deepened  wound  upon  its  noble  trunk  pointing 
out  the  lightning's  track ;  and  yet  its  umbrageous  canopy  of  limb 


48  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  PADDOCK  ON  THE 

and  leaf  appeared,  if  possible,  more  perfect,  more  beautiful  than 
ever.  I  cannot  tell — perhaps  no  one  but  the  great  Creator  himself 
will  ever  know — whether  there  may  not  have  been  specially  im 
parted  to  it,  through  some  Dryad  medium,  something  of  that  force 
of  will  from  the  source  of  all  power  which  gave  to  that  charred 
and  broken  and  wounded  trunk  the  needed  strength  to  draw  from 
the  fruitful  soil  the  sustaining  elements  necessary  to  the  continuance 
of  its  great  life.  A  few  years  later  I  have  found  this  stupendous 
growth  of  nature  a  blasted,  withered  thing.  A  second  bolt  from 
Jove's  awful  hand  had  descended  and  robbed  it  forever  of  life  and 
strength  and  beauty;  for  the  very  last  time  it  had  "flung  down  its 
green  glories  to  battle  with  the  winter's  storm." 

In  respect  of  its  inherent  strength,  its  remarkable  development, 
its  superlative  power  and  endurance  at  the  maturity  of  its  growth, 
entitling  it  to  superior  rank  among  its  fellows  as  well  as  in  its  final 
blight  and  decay,  this  wonderful  creation  of  nature  was  aptly  illus 
trative  of  the  great  life  of  the  deceased  Senator  before  whose  open 
grave  to-day  we  mourn.  To  him  there  was  given  a  mental  and  phys 
ical  organism  with  each  faculty,  each  force,  so  carefully,  so  perfectly 
adjusted  to  every  other,  the  whole  constituting  a  manhood  of  such 
symmetry  and  strength  and  power  that  in  any  sphere  of  life  must 
have  commanded  for  him  superior  station  among  his  fellows.  En 
dowments  so  rare  were  his  that  of  their  own  force,  by  their  own 
momentum,  they  impelled  him  to  the  fore-front,  to  intellectual  pri 
macy,  to  leadership ;  and  this  position  once  secured  was  easily  held 
through  that  instinctive  concession  of  precedence  which  the  masses 
of  men  always  make  to  the  possessor  of  such  faculties.  As  the  oak 
grew  broader  and  stronger  from  its  tempest  conflicts,  so  did  this 
noble  manhood  broaden  and  strengthen  in  the  encounters  incident 
to  a  life  of  leadership  among  men. 


LIFE   AND   CHAEACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.   MORTON. 


49 


Those  of  us  who  were  with  Senator  MORTON  here  did  know  and 
did  appreciate  him;  and  well  now  can  we  testify  to  his  greatness. 
We  do  indeed  know  with  what  God-like  manfulness,  with  what  self- 
reverence,  with  what  self-control,  with  what  power  of  will  he  did 
deport  and  maintain  himself  after  a  great  part  of  the  forces  of  his 
physical  nature  had  been  blasted  by  an  invisible  blow  from  that 
mysterious  power  which,  at  will,  sends  the  shaft  that  strikes  to  death 
the  forest  oak,  or  the  shock  that  palsies  the  body  of  a  leader  of  men. 

We,  sir,  do  well  remember  that  with  all  this  blight  upon  his  phys 
ical  powers,  the  great  Senator  bore  an  intellectual  lance  to  the  very 
last  day  of  his  career  in  this  Chamber  which  no  adversary  ever  de 
spised  or  was  over-eager  to  measure.  Often  during  the  period  of 
my  service  here  have  I  seen  the  whole  Senate  filled  with  admiration 
of  him,  when,  after  many  days,  perhaps  weeks,  of  continuous  debate 
on  some  important  question  in  which  he  had  constantly  participated, 
and  when  the  endurance  of  even  the  very  strongest  had  been  greatly 
overtaxed,  he  rose,  and  with  no  external  evidence  of  weariness,  re 
stated,  reviewed  all  the  arguments  of  perhaps  a  dozen  adversaries 
in  the  discussion,  and  with  one  great  masterful  overpowering  pres 
entation  of  the  law  and  the  facts  in  the  case  answered  them  all  at 
once,  leaving  his  opponents  if  not  utterly  overcome,  at  least  con 
vinced  that  their  case  had  been  greatly  damaged  by  the  blows  of  an 
intellectual  giant,  and  his  own  party  colleagues  satisfied  that  the  sub 
ject  had  been  exhausted  and  no  further  effort  on  their  part  would 
be  necessary  or  useful.  When  "the  full  river  of  his  speech  came 
down  "  upon  an  opposing  disputant  with  its  richly  laden  argosies  of 
fact  and  precedent — of  thought,  philosophy,  and  logic — if  his  oppo 
nent,  himself,  was  not  a  master  in  debate  he  was  sure  to  be  over 
whelmed,  for  only  such  an  one  could  stand  at  all  against  the  almost 
resistless  current  of  his  argument. 


50  ADDEESS  OF  MR.  PADDOCK  ON  THE 

Mr.  President,  this  was  Senator  MORTON  as  you  and  I  and  all 
of  us  knew  him;  but,  sir,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  him  beyond  all 
this  which  none  of  us  ever  did,  or  ever  can,  exactly  know.  The 
silent  inner  life — the  unspoken  thoughts — the  heart-struggles  of  this 
great  man  in  his  continual  conflict  with  the  disease  which,  first  by 
a  sudden  and  terrible,  but  only  partially  successful  blow— and 
afterward  by  insidious  approaches  waged  unceasing  war  against  his 
physical  nature — if  they  could  be  fully  written  out  would  make 
such  a  page  of  eulogy  as  alone  would  secure  for  him  the  most  endur 
ing  immortality.  But  they  will  never  be  fully  known  until  that 
great  day  when  all  the  secrets  of  the  heart  shall  be  laid  bare;  they 
went  down  with  him  into  the  grave — into  the  grave  did  I  say,  sir? 
No !  they  went  along  with  that  brave  spirit  of  which  they  were  begot 
ten  to  be  present  as  witnesses  at  the  great  final  accounting,  to  vouch 
for  the  proper  use  of  the  wonderful  powers  so  generously  loaned 
him  from  the  common  store  upon  which  the  drafts  of  mortals  are 
honored — as  they  are  worthy — as  they  have  need. 

Mr.  President,  who  of  us  has  not  now  in  his  memory,  photo 
graphed  there  ineffaceably,  that  sad,  thoughtful,  but  resolute  face, 
as  through  the  corridors  and  into  this  Chamber,  borne  in  his  chair 
by  two  stalwart  men,  he  came  to  his  great  daily  service?  The  noisy 
throng  in  the  passages  became  silent  and  gave  way  at  his  approach 
with  the  same  instinctive  reverence  that  greets  the  gallant  soldier 
who  has  borne  a  distinguished  part  in  a  memorable  battle  when 
afterward  he  is  brought  from  the  field  weary,  worn,  wounded,  and 
dying.  The  doors  flew  open  before  him  always  as  if  by  magic, 
and  party  spirit  could  at  no  time  run  so  high  as  to  cause  to  be  with 
held  from  him,  when  he  entered  here,  the  most  cordial,  the  most 
sincere,  the  most  respectful  greeting  from  every  Senator  present. 
And  who  of  us  will  forget  the  charming  heartiness  of  his  greeting, 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  51 

kindliness,  and  geniality  toward  all,  the  lowliest  equally  with  the 
highest? 

But,  Mr.  President,  Senator  MORTON  has  gone.  His  voice  will 
never  again  be  heard  in  this  Chamber.  His  great  spirit,  his  noble 
example,  his  valued  precepts,  will  remain  for  our  guidance,  but  we 
shall  see  him  no  more  here  forever.  At  length  the  death-shaft 
struck  him  full  and  strong  and  he  fell  to  rise  no  more. 

O,  what  a  fall  was  there,  my  countrymen ! 
Then  I,  and  you,  and  all  of  us  fell  down. 

One  of  the  bravest  and  truest  and  strongest;  one  for  whose  voice 
the  nation  listened  in  the  hour  of  peril;  one  to  whose  judgment  the 
people  deferred  when  the  country  was  in  trouble  and  in  distress;  a 
patriot,  a  practical  statesman,  a  man  of  work,  a  man  of  immortal 
deeds,  a  kindly,  generous  man  withal,  is  gone.  Let  the  nation — 
let  all  the  people  mourn ! 


Address  of  Mr.  BRUCE,  of  Mississippi. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  the  strong  true  men  of  a  people  are  always 
public  benefactors.  They  do  work,  not  only  directly  beneficial  to 
their  communities,  but  by  the  utterance  of  noble  thoughts  and  the 
infusion  of  a  manly  spirit  into  public  life  and  administration  they 
put  in  operation  forces  which  in  their  effects  are  of  greater  moment 
to  their  fellow-citizens  than  the  immediate  and  specific  labors  per 
formed.  The  death  of  such  men  is  a  public  calamity  because  there 
are  lost  to  the  country  not  only  their  active  energies  but  the  influence 
and  stimulus  of  their  personal  presence.  As  a  compensation  for  the 
evil  that  death  works  a  people  in  the  removal  of  its  great  leaders 
there  remain  behind  the  memory  of  their  public  services,  the  effect 
of  their  example,  and  the  subtile  influence  of  the  truths  uttered  and 


52  ADDEESS   OF   MR.    BRUCE   ON   THE 

illustrated  by  their  lives.  Occasions  like  this  furnish,  therefore,  not 
only  appropriate  opportunities  to  commemorate  the  services  and 
virtues  of  the  dead,  but  of  instruction  and  profit  to  the  living  by 
calling  attention  to  those  characteristics  and  qualities  that  have 
made  the  lives  of  the  departed  useful  and  memorable. 

My  estimate  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  embraces  mainly  the  ideas 
of  his  character  formed  from  personal  contact  in  the  Senate  and 
personal  observation  of  him  while  discharging  the  duties  of  his 
public  life.  He  impressed  me  as  a  man  of  catholic  spirit  and 
judgments. 

Born  and  reared  in  a  section  whose  type  of  thought  on  both 
political  and  moral  questions  differed  from  the  ideas  of  the  South, 
receiving  his  distinctive  and  permanent  character  from  a  period  in 
which  the  conflicting  thought  of  the  country  had  been  intensified 
and  more  clearly  articulated  by  the  passions  and  struggles  of  a  great 
civil  conflict,  he  was  a  representative  of  his  section  upon  both  the 
civil  and  ethical  questions  of  the  day ;  but  in  no  offensive  sense  was 
he,  as  a  public  man,  sectional. 

In  all  of  those  great  judgments  which  entered  into  the  formation 
and  administration  of  government,  that  were  the  basis  of  the  legis 
lation  enacted  in  the  interests  of  the  whole  country,  there  was  neither 
sectional  temper  nor  purpose. 

Among  the  manly  and  honorable  qualities  exhibited  by  the 
deceased  Senator  was  the  kindly  and  considerate  temper  manifested 
personally  toward  those  who  were  his  opponents  in  the  contests  and 
discussions  growing  out  of  party  differences  or  the  policies  and 
measures  of  government. 

So  prominent  an  actor  in  the  public  life  of  his  day,  so  earnest  in 
his  thought  and  aggressive  in  his  endeavors  to  further  what  he  con 
ceived  to  be  right,  it  would  be  singular  if  the  angular  points  in 


LIFE  AND   CHAEACTEE   OF  OLIVEE   P.   MOETON.  53 

party  life  had  not  sometimes  originated  unpleasant  personal  differ 
ences  and  collisions.  Such  collisions,  however,  were  rare  in  his 
case,  because  he  was  just  and  fair  in  his  treatment  of  those  whose 
ideas  he  not  unfrequently  was  compelled  to  combat  and  whose 
measures  he  felt  impelled  to  pronounce  unwise  and  hurtful. 

A  man  of  mature  and  positive  thought,  he  was  decided  in  the 
maintenance  of  any  opinion  he  expressed  and  sincere  in  maintaining 
any  measure  he  advocated,  but  he  conceded  like  sincerity  of  purpose 
to  his  opponents. 

While  earnest  to  severity  in  his  opposition  to  principles,  institu 
tions,  and  measures  that  seemed  unfriendly  to  the  public  interest 
or  dangerous  to  the  rights  of  the  people,  he  was  withal  deferential 
to  the  personal  advocates  of  the  very  measures  that  conscientious 
considerations  led  him  to  oppose  and  sometimes  even  to  denounce. 

What  to  the  superficial  observer  appeared  to  be  personal  bitter 
ness  was  personal  earnestness,  and  what  seemed  illiberal  to  his  polit 
ical  opponents  was  no  more  than  the  stringent  judgments  entertained 
by  him  on  questions  that  aifected  not  only  the  interests  of  the  indi 
vidual  citizen  but  the  people  of  all  classes.  Beneath  a  severe  exterior 
was  a  kindly  heart,  and  back  of  the  great  partisan  leader  were  the 
broad  wise  opinions  of  the  patriot  and  the  statesman,  who  knew  that 
the  best  interests  of  the  people  forbade  any  concessions  to  unreason 
able  prejudices  or  trifling  or  tenderness  in  dealing  with  those  who 
either  lightly  esteemed  or  recklessly  invaded  the  rights  of  the 
humblest  American  citizen. 

Whether  contemplating  OLIVEE  P.  MOETON  as  the  governor  of 
a  great  State  in  the  critical  period  of  civil  war,  exhibiting  wisdom 
in  his  plans  and  discretion,  energy,  and  courage  in  execution  thereof, 
or  observing  him  as  a  member  of  the  National  Senate,  in  discussion 
and  counsel  upon  the  grave  questions  of  legislation  and  administra- 


54  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    BRUCE   ON   THE 

tration,  involving  the  complex  and  multiplied  interests  of  a  great 
nation,  I  was  impressed  that  he  understood  both  the  philosophy  and 
practice  of  wise  government,  and  possessed  not  merely  the  qualities 
of  a  great  political  leader,  but  in  a  notable  and  remarkable  measure 
the  elements  of  a  great  statesman,  understanding  the  genius  of  our 
institutions  no  less  than  the  necessities  and  demands  of  our  great 
country.  A  generation  hence  and  his  opinions  and  judgments  on 
fundamental  and  grave  questions  will  be  cited  and  revered  as  are 
now  those  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic. 

I  would  do  injustice  to  my  own  feelings  and  that  of  my  race  did 
I  not  refer  to  the  relations  that  Senator  MORTON  sustained  to  us  and 
the  services  rendered  in  our  behalf.  No  public  man  of  his  day,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Charles  Sumner,  was 
better  known  to  the  colored  people  of  the  South  than  OLIVER  P. 
MORTON,  and  none  more  respected  and  revered. 

In  1865,  before  he  had  entered  upon  his  senatorial  career,  Sen 
ator  MORTON  expressed  opinions  that  suggested  grave  doubts  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  measures  which  contemplated  immediate  enfranchise 
ment  of  my  people.  These  measures  were  in  conflict  with  the 
sentiment  and  estimates  of  even  many  of  the  friends  of  the  negro, 
persons  who  had  labored  most  earnestly  for  his  freedom;  were 
opposed  by  the  ancient  prejudices  of  centuries;  and  there  was  no 
historical  precedent  authorizing  such  radical  measures  or  that  seemed 
to  give  guarantee  and  promise  of  their  success. 

Appreciating  the  responsibility  of  his  acts  as  a  public  man  and 
the  delicacy  and  difficulties  of  the  problem  of  reconstruction,  he  did 
not  at  that  time  take  the  pronounced  and  forward  position,  subse 
quently  so  ably  held  by  him,  in  behalf  and  defense  of  the  rights  of 
this  people.  The  shock  to  the  public  sentiment  and  prejudices  of 
an  entire  section,  involved  in  the  sudden  introduction  of  this  large 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  55 

and  new  element  into  the  politics  of  the  country,  was  feared  and 
deprecated,  and  the  competency  of  a  people  so  long  enslaved  and 
consequently  uneducated  and  unaccustomed  to  participate  in  public 
affairs  to  perform  satisfactorily  the  important  functions  that  would 
be  devolved  upon  them  in  their  new  sphere  as  citizens  seemed  to 
him  questionable.  A  more  thorough  consideration  of  this  question, 
however,  in  all  of  its  relations — local  and  national — led  to  a  revision 
of  the  opinions  expressed  in  1865,  and  upon  these  latter  judgments 
of  the  question  his  subsequent  public  action  was  based,  and  by  them 
his  public  career  is  to  be  judged.  Two  facts  prominently  challenged 
attention  and  demanded  recognition  in  any  philosophy  that  was 
broad  enough  to  compass  equally  the  interests  of  each  class  and 
every  section  of  the  country.  The  emancipation  of  more  than  four 
millions  of  former  bondsmen  was  an  accomplished  fact.  The 
political  relations  of  eleven  great  communities  were  ruptured  and 
imperatively  demanded  restoration.  The  question  holding  these 
two  determining  factors  must  be  settled  on  a  philosophy  as  broad 
as  the  facts  embraced.  Emancipation — that  its  beneficent  ends 
might  be  attained  and  adequate  readjustment  of  these  disturbed  re 
lations  of  the  political  communities  of  a  great  section  be  made — 
involved  reorganization  of  both  the  social  and  industrial  elements 
of  the  South ;  and  this  reorganization,  to  be  just,  harmonious,  peace 
ful,  and  fruitful  of  public  content  and  public  quiet,  demanded  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  negro.  The  liberties  and  securities  that 
rendered  emancipation  valuable  to  him  could  only  be  sufficiently 
attained  when  he  was  clothed  with  the  power  of  self-protection  by 
becoming  a  personal  and  actual  participant  in  the  creation  and  ad 
ministration  of  government. 

Reconstruction  of  the  Southern  States — a  restoration  of  these 
political  communities  to  participation  in  the  conduct  of  the  Federal 


56  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    BRUCE   ON   THE 

Government — could  only  become  real  and  permanent,  and  subserve 
all  of  its  purposes,  when  all  classes  of  the  community  should  be 
equally  protected  and  equally  cordial  in  obedience  to  the  law  and 
cheerfulness  in  submission  to  its  demands ;  and  this  cheerfulnes  and 
cordial  response  to  civic  obligations,  and  conscientious  recognition  of 
the  rights  of  society  and  individuals,  could  only  exist  among  the 
communities  generally  when  every  member,  by  the  possession  and 
exercise  of  equal  and  common,  personal,  civil,  and  political  privi 
leges,  should  be  inspired  with  content  and  supplied  with  equal 
motives  for  the  cultivation  and  practice  of  personal  and  civic  virtues. 
In  the  midst  of  their  vassalage  my  race  had  still  preserved  in  full 
force  and  vigor  their  original  love  of  liberty;  and  despite  the  em 
barrassment  of  their  conditions  they  had  felt  the  ennobling  influ 
ences  of  the  Christian  civilization  that  surrounded  them.  Cast 
down  but  not  destroyed;  disciplined  by  the  painful  ordeal  through 
which  they  had  passed ;  apt  to  learn  and  prompt  to  appreciate  the 
ennobling  ideas  of  American  institutions,  they  were  in  a  large  meas 
ure  prepared  to  enter  upon  the  new  life  presented  to  them. 

On  the  other  hand  the  American  people — with  institutions  estab 
lished,  yet  elastic;  a  public  sentiment  whose  catholicity  was  rein 
forced  by  the  sturdiest  conservatism — the  nation,  possessing,  in  a 
remarkable  measure,  the  maturity  of  age  without  its  weakness  and 
the  vigor  of  youth  without  its  ignorance,  were  prepared  to  initiate 
and,  in  his  judgment,  to  perfect  this  great  philanthropic  movement, 
which  looked  not  only  to  the  elevation  of  a  race  but  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  a  great  country. 

He  knew  that  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  negro  soldiers  had 
ventured  life  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the  Government  and  the 
integrity  of  the  soil  of  the  Republic;  and  it  seemed  appropriate  and 
just  that  the  nation,  emerging  from  a  supreme  effort  for  its  own 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  57 

preservation  and  elevated  by  its  grand  success,  should  requite  these 
services,  and  realize  the  popular  aspirations  for  universal  liberty  and 
equality  by  a  commensurate  liberalization  of  the  laws  and  institu 
tions  of  the  country. 

He  believed  the  negro  would  be  equal  to  the  responsibility  of  his 
new  life  and  meet,  in  reasonable  and  creditable  measure,  the  de 
mands  that  it  made  upon  him ;  and  he  believed  also  that  the  insti 
tutions  of  the  country  were  strong  enough  to  bear  with  safety  the 
strain  that  this  new  venture  might  make  upon  them,  and  that  the 
unavoidable  mistakes  in  government,  arising  from  the  enforced 
ignorance  of  the  new  citizen,  would  suggest  their  own  corrective, 
and  that  the  Republic  meanwhile  would  both  live  and  prosper. 
The  sober  judgments  of  Senator  MORTON  embraced  all  this  and 
more.  And  standing  on  this  high  and  philanthropic  plane  of 
thought  he  resolutely  contributed  to  put  into  organic  form  those 
constitutional  provisions  that  specifically  protect  the  rights  of  five 
million  American  citizens,  and  to  enact  and  enforce  equally  and 
alike  the  statutes  that  rendered  these  provisions  operative  and  the 
rights  thereunder  practically  enjoyable.  Through  him  and  his  peers 
the  grand  declaration  of  human  equality  made  by  Jefferson  in  1776, 
and  for  nearly  a  century  a  glittering  abstraction,  has  become  a  part 
of  the  fundamental  law  of  the  land. 

For  the  great  ability  and  integrity  that  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  ex 
hibited  in  his  public  life  he  is  entitled  to  the  admiration  and  respect 
of  his  countrymen ;  and  for  the  fidelity  and  patience  with  which  he 
labored  for  the  elevation  and  protection  of  the  negroes  of  the  South 
he  will  receive  their  heartfelt  gratitude  and  reverent  love. 


58  ADDEESS   OF   MR.    VOORHEES   ON   THE 


Address  by  Mr.  VOORHEES,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  the  proprieties  of  this  sad  occasion  and  the 
usages  of  this  body  do  not  permit  me  to  remain  silent.  We  are 
paying  the  last  tribute  of  respect  to  one  who  was  long  a  Senator 
from  Indiana,  and  whose  name  will  be  forever  associated  with 
her  history.  We  are  saying  the  last  few  words  over  the  grave  of 
one  who  played  a  bold  and  leading  part  here,  and  identified  him 
self  with  every  prominent  measure  in  national  affairs  for  the  past 
ten  years. 

I  knew  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  from  my  first  entrance  upon  the 
duties  of  manhood.  We  met  at  the  beginning  of  our  acquaintance 
both  as  personal  and  political  friends,  and  although  we  afterward 
became  as  widely  separated  as  the  poles  of  the  earth  in  our  views 
of  public  affairs,  yet  our  personal  relations  were  never  disturbed. 
There  were  periods  of  great  excitement  in  our  State  when  we  met 
but  seldom,  but  when  we  did  it  was  always  with  civility  and 
courtesy. 

Senator  MORTON  was  without  doubt  a  very  remarkable  man. 
His  force  of  character  cannot  be  over  estimated.  His  will-power 
was  simply  tremendous.  He  threw  himself  into  all  his  undertak 
ings  with  that  fixedness  of  purpose  and  disregard  of  obstacles  which 
are  always  the  best  guarantees  of  success.  This  was  true  of  him 
whether  engaged  in  a  lawsuit,  organizing  troops  during  the  war, 
conducting  a  political  campaign  or  a  debate  in  the  Senate.  The 
same  daring,  aggressive  policy  characterized  his  conduct  everywhere. 
He  made  warm,  devoted  friends  and  bitter  enemies.  His  followers 
were  intense  in  their  support  and  admiration,  and  his  enemies 
were  often  unrelenting  and  unsparing.  It  is  always  so  with  such 
a  nature  as  his.  Small  men  of  neutral  temperaments  escape  the 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  69 

conflicts  of  life  through  which  the  strong,  bold  man  passes  to  fame 
and  power. 

The  motives  which  actuated  Senator  MORTON  in  his  public 
conduct  are  not  now  open  to  discussion.  I  shall  ask  the  same 
charity  for  mine  when  I  am  gone  that  I  extend  to  his.  That  he 
was  sincere  in  his  convictions  no  one  will  ever  question.  That 
the  general  tenor  of  his  convictions  upon  the  relations  between  the 
North  and  the  South  was  erroneous,  I  think  history  will  fully 
establish. 

Senator  MORTON'S  life  contains  one  great  lesson  to  young  men 
commencing  a  career  of  honorable  ambition.  He  entered  upon  the 
ordeal  of  life  with  nothing  on  which  to  rely  but  his  own  intellect 
and  his  indomitable  will.  The  position  from  which  he  started  to 
achieve  all  his  success  was  humble  and  unpromising.  It  is  hard 
to  recall  any  other  American  whose  career  better  proves  that 
industry  and  talents  will  overcome  all  things  than  his.  He  be 
came  a  power  in  the  land.  He  was  a  party  leader  second  to  none 
in  our  history.  If  he  could  not  be  President  himself,  he  did  much 
to  make  others  so,  and  to  dictate  their  policies.  And  now  that  he 
is  gone  a  large  portion  of  the  American  people  regard  his  loss  as 
irreparable. 

Sir,  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  is  no  more,  and  in  his  death  there  is  a 
solemn  lesson  to  us.  How  small  and  insignificant  appear  all  the 
asperities,  the  heart-burnings,  and  personal  alienations  of  the  hour 
when  we  measure  them  by  the  side  of  our  responsibilities  in  that 
world  to  which  he  has  gone !  We  are  as  evanescent  and  fleeting 
here  as  the  insect  tribes  of  the  air.  Over  the  river,  "  in  the  land  to 
which  we  are  drifting,"  there  is  life  forever.  Let  us  so  use  the  little 
margin  we  have  on  the  shores  of  time  that  eternity  will  open  as  a 
joy  and  not  as  a  terror  on  our  liberated  spirits.  And  may  those  we 


60  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    VOORHEES. 

leave  behind  us  do  for  our  memories  what  we  now  do  for  the 
memory  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON. 

I  move  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously ;  and  (at  three  o'clock 
and  nine  minutes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


ADDKESSES 


ON    THE 


DEATH  OF  OLIVER  p.  MORTON. 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 

FRIDAY,  JANUARY  18, 1878. 

The  SPEAKER.  The  gentleman  from  Indiana  [Mr.  HANNA] 
rises  to  call  up  the  resolutions  of  the  Senate  touching  the  death  of 
Hon.  O.  P.  MORTON,  late  a  Senator  from  Indiana. 

The  Clerk  will  read  the  resolutions. 

The  resolutions  were  read,  as  follows : 

IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

January  17,  1878. 

Resolved,  That  from  an  earnest  desire  to  show  every  mark  of  respect  to  the  mem 
ory  of  Hon.  OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  late  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of 
Indiana,  and  to  manifest  the  high  estimate  entertained  of  his  eminent  public  ser 
vices,  his  distinguished  patriotism,  and  his  usefulness  as  a  citizen,  the  business  of 
the  Senate  be  now  suspended,  that  the  friends  and  associates  of  the  deceased  Senator 
may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  his  public  and  private  virtues. 

Resolved,  That  a  wide-spread  and  public  sorrow  on  the  announcement  of  his 
death  attested  the  profound  sense  of  the  loss  which  the  whole  country  has  sus 
tained. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr.  MORTON,  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Senate  will  go  into  mourning  by  wearing  crape  upon  the  left  arm  for 
thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  these  resolutions  to  the 
House  of  Representatives. 


62  ADDRESS   OP   MR.    HANNA   ON   THE 


Address  of  Mr.  HANNA,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  The  death  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  a  national 
bereavement.  It  is  therefore  eminently  just  that  the  record  of  that 
department  of  the  Government  in  which  he  served  with  such  signal 
ability  should  bear  some  testimonial  of  his  illustrious  character  and 
worth.  Although  his  career  was  brief,  yet  few  men  have  acted  a  more 
prominent  part  or  commanded  so  large  a  share  of  public  thought. 
For  fifteen  years  the  name  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  has  been  known 
in  every  household  of  the  nation,  known  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
he  was  endowed  with  those  extraordinary  qualities  of  character 
which  made  him  a  great  leader  among  the  greatest  men  of  his  time. 
We  may  perhaps  with  profit  glance  at  some  of  the  marked  char 
acteristics  of  the  man  for  whose  memory  the  representatives  of  the 
people  dedicate  this  hour. 

Although  prior  to  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  he  was  recog 
nized  in  Indiana  as  a  man  of  commanding  ability,  yet  it  was  as 
governor  of  that  State  he  became  a  national  character.  He  was 
equal  to  every  emergency,  surmounted  every  obstacle,  never  faltered 
in  the  face  of  danger,  and  with  sleepless  vigilance  anticipated  the 
attack  of  political  or  national  foe.  His  giant  intellect  grasped  every 
difficulty  and  promptly  suggested  remedies  which  inspired  confi 
dence  in  the  true  and  discomfited  the  faithless.  When  the  Legisla 
ture  of  his  State  failed  to  make  provision  by  law  to  pay  the  ex 
penses  of  the  State  government,  preserve  her  credit,  and  care  for  the 
helpless  and  unfortunate  blind,  dumb,  and  insane,  he  did  not  quail 
in  the  presence  of  the  perfidy  for  an  instant,  but  boldly  pledged  his 
personal  honor  that  the  money  should  be  repaid,  and  it  was  promptly 
loaned  him.  When  the  Government  was  sorely  in  need  of  muni 
tions  of  war  for  national  defense  he  said  to  the  Executive,  "Advance 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  63 

me  sufficient  means  to  start  and  I  will,  in  obedience  to  the  over 
shadowing  necessity  of  the  hour,  without  authority  of  law,  establish 
my  own  board  of  finance,  organize  an  arsenal  in  which  shall  be 
promptly  manufactured  that  which  is  vital  to  the  success  of  our 
arms ;"  and  it  was  done  at  his  bidding.  His  executive  ability  was 
the  admiration  of  every  patriot.  The  facility  with  which  he  organ 
ized,  armed,  and  equipped  the  soldiery  of  his  State  stamped  him  as 
no  ordinary  man.  He  did  not  forget  the  brave  men  when  they  had 
crossed  the  border,  but  followed  them  to  the  tented  field,  the  hos 
pital,  the  scene  of  conflict,  and  by  his  presence  said  to  them  "  I  have 
a  heart  in  sympathy  with  you."  The  governors  of  sister  States 
availed  themselves  of  his  wise  and  patriotic  counsel,  and  the  Execu 
tive  of  the  nation  gave  heed  to  his  suggestions.  Although  some 
times  impatient,  he  never  expressed  a  doubt  of  ultimate  success. 
His  record  during  that  unhappy  conflict  is  as  imperishable  as  the 
love  of  free  institutions. 

His  intellectual  power  was  of  the  highest  order.  In  that  regard 
no  man  has  so  nearly  approached  the  full  measure  of  the  "great 
expounder  of  the  Constitution,"  Daniel  Webster.  In  debate,  by 
reason  of  his  almost  superhuman  intellect,  he  was  invincible.  The 
simplicity,  clearness,  and  compactness  with  which  he  presented  every 
proposition ;  his  power  of  analysis,  which  exposed  sophistry  or  false 
hood,  and  the  ever  prevailing  earnestness  of  manner,  born  of  con 
scious  power,  enabled  him  in  the  discussion  of  great  constitutional 
questions  to  reach,  instruct,  and  convince  the  common  understand 
ing  as  easily  as  if  presenting  matters  of  less  moment  involving  mere 
party  policy.  Impartial  history  will  accord  him  the  foremost  de 
bater  of  his  time.  In  party  warfare,  as  in  defense  of  the  Union, 
his  blows  were  those  of  a  Hercules,  never  aimless,  but  with  crush 
ing  force  upon  the  forefront  of  opposition.  Oft  and  again  has  his 


64  ADDEESS   OF   ME.    HANNA   ON   THE 

adversary  reeled,  staggered,  and  fallen  upon  the  field  of  conflict. 
Clay,  with  his  dashing  chivalry  and  electric  appeal,  inspired  the 
whig  as  if  a  divinity;  MOETON,  cool,  self-reliant,  majestic,  hurled 
at  his  opponent  his  unanswerable  logic  with  the  resistless  force  and 
power  of  a  thunderbolt  from  Jove.  In  party  politics  he  was  bold, 
aggressive,  and  untiring.  He  recognized  the  efficiency  and  power 
of  organization,  and  hence  his  cohorts  were  ever  disciplined  and 
ready  for  the  charge.  As  a  leader  he  was  without  an  equal  in 
modern  times. 

By  some  he  has  been  characterized  as  the  apostle  of  hate.  Time 
will  prove  that  he  did  not  hate  the  people  of  any  section.  When 
falsehood  and  prejudice  shall  have  yielded  to  truth  and  reason  their 
rightful  supremacy,  the  historic  pen  will  do  him  full  justice.  The 
preservation  of  the  Union  in  the  interest  of  liberty  and  humanity 
was  with  him  a  conviction  of  duty  so  intense  that  no  earthly  power 
ever  presented  obstacles  which  he  deemed  insurmountable.  "We 
are  one  people,  one  nation,  undivided  and  indivisible,"  was  his 
answer  to  secession,  and  the  sentiment  he  thus  uttered  became  the 
battle-cry  of  every  patriot  in  the  land.  To  him  more  than  any  other 
man  since  Washington  are  we  indebted  for  the  extinguishment  of 
the  heresy — a  heresy  which  has  cost  so  much  blood  and  treasure — 
that  we  are  simply  a  confederation  of  States,  bound  only  by  a  rope 
of  sand ;  and  to  him  are  we  in  like  manner  indebted  for  the  recog 
nition  of  the  fundamental,  national  idea,  that  our  allegiance  to  the 
Union  is  paramount  to  that  of  the  State,  that  the  title  of  "American  " 
is  superior  to  that  of  "Indianian."  He  was  equally  devoted  to 
securing  beyond  all  question  for  the  weak  and  humble  the  inalien 
able  rights  of  man,  and  hence  was  not  content  until  these  rights 
were  firmly  imbedded  in  the  Constitution  by  the  adoption  of  the 
several  amendments.  His  wisdom  and  statesmanship  in  that  regard 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  65 

have  been  sanctioned  by  the  national  utterance  of  all  parties.  God 
forbid  that  any  man  should  object  that  the  humble,  the  lowly,  and 
the  long-enslaved  should  bedew  his  bier  or  water  the  flowers  that  in 
coming  years  shall  bloom  over  his  grave  with  their  tears  of  grateful 
remembrance.  It  is  the  holiest  offering  that  mortal  can  offer  in 
recognition  of  a  beneficent  deed.  I  repeat,  he  did  not  hate  the  peo 
ple  of  any  section. 

His  untiring  and  incessant  labor  in  behalf  of  the  Union  and  to 
secure  the  equal  rights  of  every  citizen  under  the  Constitution  and 
laws  has  by  some  been  made  the  pretext  for  such  charge.  To  all 
such  I  offer  no  apology  for  his  conduct.  The  wisdom  of  his  action 
has  been  justified  by  a  preserved  nationality.  I  grant  you  he  was 
a  partisan,  but  his  partisan  zeal  was  ever  subservient  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  nation.  He  never  spoke  for  party,  State,  or  section 
as  against  the  Union.  He  never  counseled  blotting  out  a  single  star 
that  glitters  upon  the  American  flag.  He  was  never  a  party  to  any 
scheme  of  national  dishonor.  He  was  the  bold  champion  of  free 
labor  at  a  time  when  that  struggling  cause  was  denied  unfettered 
utterance.  As  the  friend  of  man  he  gave  attentive  ear  to  the  whis 
perings  of  the  spirit  of  progress.  He  clung  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union  as  the  sheet-anchor  of  hope  for  the  welfare  of  unborn 
millions.  In  him  the  people  had  an  advocate  equal  to  every  emer 
gency  in  which  their  dearest  interests  were  involved.  Had  you 
been  with  me  at  the  capital  of  my  native  State  on  the  6th  of  No 
vember  last  and  beheld  more  than  fifty  thousand  strong  men,  of 
every  shade  of  political  opinion  and  of  every  pursuit  in  life  and 
from  every  section,  who  on  that  inclement  day  stood  along  the 
streets  for  miles,  with  bowed  heads  and  solemn  mien,  while  the 
mortal  remains  of  the  great  man  they  honored,  respected,  and  loved 
were  borne  to  their  last  resting-place  on  earth,  you  would  not  dare 


66  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    HANNA   ON   THE 

lisp  the  charge  that  OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  when  living,  was  in 
spired  with  the  spirit  of  hate.  That  he  had  political  enemies  I 
grant.  No  public  man  deserves  a  place  in  history  who  has  not. 
The  smile  of  Judas  Iscariot  never  played  upon  his  manly  face.  His 
adherence  to  personal  friends  sometimes  invoked  severe  criticism, 
for  he  was  slow  to  abandon  any  man  in  whom  he  had  once  reposed 
confidence.  His  personal  integrity,  like  the  virtue  which  Csesar 
demanded  for  his  wife,  was  above  suspicion. 

An  ill-gotten  dollar,  in  either  public  or  private  life,  never  soiled 
the  palm  of  his  hand.  His  soul  was  never  blackened  with  official 
corruption.  Investigating  committees  encountered  no  offensive 
stench  arising  from  the  record  of  his  accounts  with  either  State  or 
National  Government,  although  he  was  intrusted  with  millions  with 
out  surety  save  his  individual  honor.  Few  men  of  any  age  were 
ever  endowed  with  such  force  of  will.  From  boyhood  to  death  it 
was  a  marked  characteristic.  What  he  resolved  to  do,  as  a  rule 
was  accomplished.  Although  for  years  afflicted  beyond  the  power 
of  words  to  express,  he  willed  to  labor  beyond  the  measure  of  per 
fect  strength.  By  sheer  force  of  will  he  kept  at  bay  the  grim  mon 
ster  and  seemingly  bid  him  defiance.  His  will-power  carried  him 
in  the  discharge  of  official  duty  wherever  and  whenever  his  country 
demanded.  I  grant  he  was  ambitious.  God  pity  the  boy  or  man 
who  is  not.  Like  Webster  and  Clay  he  aspired  to  the  Presidency, 
and,  like  them,  he  did  not  aspire  beyond  his  merit. 

Peerless  leader,  beloved  governor,  heroic  Unionist,  wise  coun 
selor,  matchless  Senator,  affectionate  husband,  kind  father,  honest 
man.  Citizen  and  statesman  of  a  great  nation,  in  whose  service  he 
labored  until  in  the  presence  of  death  he  exclaimed,  "I  am  worn 
out,"  his  record  has  passed  into  history,  and  the  memory  of  his 
achievements  will  inspire  the  American  youth  to  emulate  his  ex- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  67 

ample.  Grand  type  of  free  institutions ;  fit  representative  of  the 
mighty  West.  Thank  God  for  the  preservation  of  a  government 
that  bids  the  poor  ambitious  orphan  boy  of  the  field  and  shop  to 
climb  upward  to  a  position  higher  than  that  of  any  crowned  head  of 
earth,  the  American  Senate.  May  we  indulge  the  fond  hope  that 
his  immortal  spirit  peacefully  rests  in  the  realm  of  eternal  bliss. 
Indiana  keenly  feels  the  loss  of  her  distinguished  son,  and  as  chief 
mourner  in  the  midst  of  her  sorrowing  sisters  she  utters  at  the  grave 
of  her  dead  a  silent,  fervent  prayer  that  the  God  of  our  fathers  may 
preserve  and  bless  us  as  "one  people,  one  nation,  undivided  and 
indivisible." 


Address  of  Mr.  WILSON,  of  West  Virginia. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  when  my  name  was  announced  as  a  member  of 
the  committee  appointed  to  represent  this  House  at  the  funeral  of 
the  late  Senator  MORTON,  my  first  impulse  was  to  decline  the  ap 
pointment,  in  order  that  some  gentleman  whose  opinions  had  been 
more  in  accord  with  those  of  Mr.  MORTON  than  had  my  own  might 
perform  that  office  in  my  place ;  but,  reflecting  that  a  solemn  duty 
had  been  imposed  on  me,  which  I  was  not  at  liberty  to  decline  with 
out  cause,  and  remembering,  too,  that  during  the  last  Congress  I 
was  prevented  by  ill  health  from  serving  upon  a  similar  committee 
chosen  to  pay  the  last  tribute  of  respect  to  West  Virginia's  late  dis 
tinguished  son,  Senator  Caperton,  I  yielded  my  personal  preference 
and  performed  the  duty  assigned  to  me. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  gratified  that  I  did  so ;  am  grati 
fied  that  I  was  placed  in  a  position  to  hear  and  see  things  that  gave 
me  a  better  opinion  than  I  had  theretofore  entertained  of  him  whose 
memory  this  House  and  the  country  mourn  to-day. 


68  ADDEESS   OF   MR.    WILSON   ON   THE 

The  frailty  of  our  nature  when  aroused  by  the  passions  of  the 
hour  too  often  prompts  us  to  withhold  from  our  opponents  while 
living  the  respect  we  cherish  for  their  memories  when  they  are  no 
more,  and  so  it  was  in  the  life  and  death  of  Senator  MORTON.  His 
career  had  been  so  prominent  and  so  closely  allied  to  the  legislation 
which  operated  harshly  upon  the  Southern  States  that  he  was  re 
garded  by  those  holding  opposing  views  as  an  extreme  partisan. 

But  there  is  another  criterion  by  which  to  weigh  the  character  of 
the  man  and  the  statesman.  It  is  the  estimate  placed  upon  him  by 
his  neighbors,  by  those  who  see  him  most  and  know  him  best.  Tried 
by  this  test  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  a  better  man,  more  of  a  man, 
than  his  public  conduct  would  indicate.  On  the  day  of  his  burial, 
in  the  beautiful  city  of  his  home,  there  was  to  be  seen  an  immense 
funeral  pageant;  flags  floated  at  half-mast  almost  everywhere ;  pub 
lic  buildings  and  private  residences  were  draped  in  mourning;  a 
throng  of  fifty  thousand  sorrow-stricken  people  had  assembled  from 
various  parts  of  his  own  State  and  from  other  States  to  be  present 
at  the  last  sad  rites.  Democrats  and  republicans,  white  and  black 
men,  ladies  and  little  children,  vied  with  each  other  in  doing  him 
honor.  No  man,  Mr.  Speaker,  could  be  thus  mourned  and  buried 
who  had  not  possessed  good  qualities  of  both  head  and  heart. 

He  entered  at  an  early  age  upon  the  stormy  sea  of  politics,  and 
rapidly  advanced  to  the  front  rank  as  an  orator  and  leader  in  the 
perilous  times  of  sectional  strife  and  revolution.  The  crowning 
period  of  his  life  was  during  the  late  war,  when  he  acted  in  a  civico- 
military  capacity  as  governor  of  Indiana.  He  soon  became  the 
most  distinguished  governor  on  the  continent,  winning  for  himself 
the  reputation  of  being  the  great  war  governor  of  America. 

When  the  policy  of  the  Government  was  not  well  denned  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  war,  and  even  the  then  Executive  seemed  to  be 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  69 

wavering,  Governor  MORTON  delivered  upon  that  subject,  at  the 
capital  of  his  State,  a  speech  which  fell  like  a  flash  of  lightning  into 
the  gloom.  His  positive  counsel  was  speedily  followed  up  by  ener 
getic  action,  and  he  surpassed  all  other  men  in  zeal  and  efficiency  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  war;  was  foremost  and  fiercest  in  the  effort 
to  overthrow  the  rebellion.  Apparently  losing  sight  of  everything 
else,  to  this  one  idea  he  devoted  the  wonderful  powers  of  his  mind 
and  the  best  days  of  his  life.  It  was  the  dream  of  his  existence, 
which  he  followed — 

With  an  eye  that  never  sleeps, 
And  a  wing  that  never  tires. 

His  political  opinions  were  strong  and  extreme,  and  were  pressed 
by  him  without  regard  to  opposition.  This  characteristic  led  many 
to  consider  him  cold,  and  even  harsh  and  bitter,  in  his  feelings 
toward  his  opponents;  but  those  more  familiar  with  his  life  claim 
that  his  intercourse  with  his  fellow  men  was  kind  and  courteous, 
and  that  his  devotion  to  his  family  was  the  strongest  and  most 
beautiful  manifestation  of  his  character. 

The  future  historian  will  ascribe  to  him  inconsistency  upon 
currency,  negro  suffrage,  and  perhaps  other  questions  of  principle 
and  policy. 

From  the  time  he  entered  upon  his  legislative  career  he  con 
tributed  largely  to  the  policy  pursued  by  the  Government  toward 
the  Southern  States;  yet  upon  the  adoption  of  President  Hayes's 
southern  policy  he  yielded  his  opposition  and  acquiesced  in  it; 
and,  if  living  to-day,  it  is  fair  to  infer  that,  far  from  confederating 
to  strike  down  the  arm  of  the  Administration,  he  would  be  found 
zealously  upholding  it. 

However  much  he  was  distinguished  for  his  varied  services  as 
governor  of  his  native  State,  there  was  reserved  for  him  another 
theater  of  action  where  his  great  ability  was  to  give  him  a  position 


70  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    BROWN   ON   THE 

of  commanding  influence — the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He 
was  not  equal  in  comprehensive  statesmanship  to  Clay,  Webster,  or 
Calhoun,  but  as  a  party  leader  he  excelled  them  all ;  and  he  took 
his  high  rank  in  that  august  body  without  having  had  previous 
experience  as  a  legislator. 

Some  men  become  great  through  the  gift  of  peculiar  talent, 
others  achieve  greatness  by  force  of  will  and  energy  of  character. 
Mr.  MORTON,  before  he  entered  the  Senate,  was  stricken  down  by 
paralysis,  and  though  a  hopeless  cripple  for  the  rest  of  his  life  his 
force  of  will  and  energy  of  character  raised  him  up  and  pressed 
him  forward.  He  scorned  paralysis  with  the  same  determination 
with  which  he  scorned  all  other  dangers  and  obstacles;  dragged  his 
half-dead  body  to  his  seat  in  yonder  hall,  and  for  ten  years  of 
unrelaxing  labor,  unwincing  boldness,  and  unmurmuring  patience 
struggled  with  great  men  and  great  measures,  winning  success  and 
prominence  that  seldom  fall  to  the  lot  of  any  one  man. 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Speaker,  notwithstanding  the  wide  differences 
of  opinion  that  existed  between  Senator  MORTON  and  the  majority 
of  the  members  of  this  House,  we  can,  as  Americans,  all  point 
with  pride  to  the  fact  that  no  charge  of  corruption  tarnishes  his 
name. 

Address  of  Mr.  BROWN,  of  Indiana. 

Representing  the  birthplace  and  the  old  home  of  OLIVER  P. 
MORTON,  it  is  fit  I  should  say  a  word  on  this  sad  occasion.  I  shall 
attempt  no  eulogy.  Panegyic  may  gratify  the  living,  but  the  ear 
of  him  who  was  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  my  personal  and  polit 
ical  friend  is  deaf  alike  to  censure  or  to  praise.  Calumny  can  no 
more  wound  him,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  new-made  grave 
malice  stands  mute.  Rivalries  and  resentments  are  now  extin- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.   MORTON.  71 

guished,  and  friend  and  adversary  alike  lay  their  garlands  on  the 
coffin  of  the  dead  statesman.  It  is  creditable  to  our  poor  weak 
nature  that  when  one  who  has  antagonized  us  joins 

The  innumerable  caravan  which  moves 

To  that  mysterious  realm  where  each  shall  take 

His  chamber  in  the  silent  halls  of  death, 

we  are  ready  to  review  his  life  in  a  spirit  of  fairness  and  candor, 
approving  the  good,  and  with  a  generous  charity  covering  the  ill 
out  of  sight.  Those  who  have  been  in  public  life  especially  know 
that  to  escape  censure  one  must  live  a  whole  life-time  without  com 
mitting  a  mistake  or  doing  or  saying  an  ill  or  an  unwise  thing. 
We  realize,  too,  that  when  death  casts  its  shadow  upon  our  souls, 
poor  and  insignificant  will  be  the  story  of  our  goodness  and  great 
ness;  that  when  the  life  struggle  is  over,  and,  worn  out,  we  pass 
into  the  darkness  of  the  night  of  death,  all  there  will  be  left  of  us 
will  be  the  example  of  our  lives  and  the  influence  of  our  actions 
and  opinions.  "Every  human  life  is  a  lesson, — it  may  be  an 
example,  but  always  a  lesson."  And  it  is  appropriate,  therefore, 
that  on  an  occasion  like  the  present  we  repeat  the  history  and  the 
lesson  of  the  life  that  is  gone,  that  it  may  live  in  what  it  has 
achieved  worthy  the  respect  or  gratitude  of  mankind. 

Like  most  distinguished  men  of  the  Republic — of  those  who 
have  taken  conspicuous  positions  in  professional  or  political  life — 
OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  a  self-made  man,  the  architect  and  arbiter 
of  his  own  fortune.  To  the  accident  of  birth  or  fortune,  family 
influence  or  patronage,  he  owed  nothing  whatever.  His  only  pat 
rimony  was  orphanage,  and  he  wrought  his  great  career  by  his  own 
genius. 

He  came  from  a  sturdy  English  stock,  an  ancestry  possessing  that 
stubborn  tenacity  of  purpose,  that  unyielding  will  peculiar  to  that 
people.  From  this  ancestry  he  doubtless  inherited  that  character- 


72  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    BROWN   ON   THE 

istic  courage  and  perseverance  so  prominent  in  his  public  life,  for 
"the  source  of  genius  is  ofttimes  in  ancestry  and  the  blood  of 
descent  is  the  prophecy  of  destiny."  His  parents  were  natives  of 
New  Jersey,  but  at  an  early  day  they  moved  West  and  made  .their 
home  in  the  then  young  but  growing  State  of  Indiana — a  State  to 
which  they  were  destined  to  give  the  proudest  name  in  its  history, 
a  son  who  was  to  stand  above  all  others  of  his  time  as  a  states 
man  and  political  leader.  At  an  early  age  he  was  left  an  orphan. 
The  years  of  his  boyhood  were  passed  at  the  seminary  of  his  native 
village,  at  the  Miami  University,  Oxford,  Ohio,  and  in  learning 
the  trade  of  a  hatter.  "Ambition,  that  germ  from  which  all 
growth  of  true  nobleness  proceeds,"  inspired  him  to  seek  fields  of 
broader  usefulness  than  were  to  be  found  in  a  hatter's  shop,  and  in 
the  year  1843,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  entered  upon  the  study  of 
law.  His  venerable  preceptor,  Hon.  John  S.  Newman,  thus  wrote 
me  a  few  weeks  ago: 

Senator  MORTON  came  into  my  office  at  Centreville  thirty-four  years  ago,  at  the 
age  of  twenty.  As  a  student  he  was  industrious  and  thoughtful,  anxious  at  all  times 
to  accomplish  everything  he  undertook.  In  discussing  questions  that  arose  in  his 
reading  he  exhibited  a  quickness  of  comprehension  and  a  clearness  in  statement 
that  gave  promise  of  that  success  in  his  chosen  profession  which  he  afterward 
secured. 

His  professional  career  covered  the  fourteen  years  from  1843  to 
1861,  when,  being  elevated  to  the  office  of  governor,  he  left  the  bar 
and  returned  to  it  no  more.  When  he  retired  from  the  profession 
he  stood  well  advanced  toward  its  front.  He  did  not  reach  profes 
sional  eminence  at  a  single  bound,  did  not  win  distinction  in  some 
first  cause  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  genius  or  the  fervor  of  his 
eloquence,  but  by  perseverance  and  pluck  he  went  steadily  forward 
and  upward,  never  halting  and  never  going  back,  until  he  became 
the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  bar  of  Eastern  Indiana — a  bar  num 
bering  among  its  members  such  men  as  Caleb  B.  Smith,  Samuel  W. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  73 

0 

Parker,  James  Rariden,  Jehu  T.  Elliott,  Charles  H.  Test,  and  John 
S.  Newman. 

In  1855  it  was  my  fortune  to  go  on  the  circuit  as  prosecuting  attor 
ney,  ^nd  during  the  five  succeeding  years,  the  last  and  most  active 
years  of  his  professional  life,  I  had  frequent  opportunities  of  witness 
ing  his  management  of  causes  in  court.  He  presented  a  legal  ques 
tion  with  great  force  and  clearness.  With  a  mind  at  once  robust 
and  critical,  he  was  able  to  grasp  the  whole  scope  of  his  subject,  to 
fathom  its  profoundest  depths  and  master  its  minutest  details.  With 
a  quickness  that  was  notable  he  seized  upon  the  strong  point  in  his 
case  and  centered  upon  it  every  power  of  his  mind,  fortified  it  with 
facts,  intrenched  it  behind  precedents,  environed  it  about  with  illus 
trations,  until  his  position  seemed  impregnable.  While  he  chose 
with  unerring  certainty  the  strong  point  in  his  own  cause,  with 
equal  readiness  and  accuracy  he  discovered  the  weak  one  in  that  of 
his  adversary.  No  man  was  better  versed  in  the  art  of  putting  facts 
to  the  court  or  jury.  He  brought  with  a  singular  skill  the  favorable 
points  of  his  client's  case  in  prominence,  and  exhibited  a  like  dex 
terity  and  acuteness  in  suppressing  that  which  was  prejudicial  to  his 
interests.  He  readily  detected  a  sophistry,  and  would  break  it  into 
fragments  as  the  "spray  is  broken  upon  the  rocks."  Without  any 
eloquence  other  than  the  "talent  of  giving  force  to  reason,"  he  was 
a  most  successful  and  formidable  jury-lawyer.  He  had  a  keen  in 
sight  into  human  nature  and  possessed  an  extraordinary  influence 
over  men.  With  a  dominion  that  was  absolute  he  seized  upon  the 
sympathy  of  the  jury  and  poured  the  resistless  tide  of  his  own  earnest 
emotions  and  convictions  into  their  hearts.  In  the  trial  of  a  cause 
he  never  lost  faith,  but  worked  resolutely  on  to  the  end  with  an 
unflagging  confidence  in  his  ability  to  win,  and  he  seldom  lost 
the  verdict.  His  was  indeed  a  "Roman  courage,  that  plucked 


10 


74  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    BROWN  ON   THE 

success  from  rugged  danger  and  snatched  victory  from  the  jaws  of 
defeat," 

The  bar  is  said  to  be  the  nursery  of  American  politics,  the  school 
in  which  the  young  men  of  the  Republic  prepare  themselves  for  pub 
lic  employments.  It  provides  an  opportunity  for  talent,  and  in  pop 
ular  governments  there  is  always  a  place  and  a  mission  for  a  man  of 
ability,  and  intellect  and  merit  will  sooner  or  later  force  their  pos 
sessor  to  the  front. 

OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  trained  in  this  school,  and  at  the  early 
age  of  thirty-three  passed  from  it  and  unchallenged  assumed  the 
leadership  of  the  republican  party  of  Indiana.  In  May,  1856,  he 
was  unanimously  nominated  by  that  party  as  its  candidate  for  gov 
ernor  in  that,  its  first  contest  for  political  supremacy.  Until  the 
abrogation  of  the  Missouri  compromise  and  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
legislation  he  had  been  in  politics  a  democrat,  but  his  convictions  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  would  not  permit  him  to  act  with  that  party 
longer.  In  this  memorable  campaign  his  opponent  was  the  lamented 
and  gifted  Ashbel  P.  Willard.  Never  were  two  more  able  but  dis 
similar  men  pitted  against  each  other  in  the  arena  of  public  debate. 
The  one  was  eloquent,  copious,  imaginative,  and  ornate;  the  other 
earnest,  epigrammatic,  and  severely  logical;  the  one  gave  to  elo 
quence  the  graces  of  poetry ;  the  other  clothed  it  in  the  garb  of  match 
less  reason.  Willard  culled  the  language  and  tied  the  words  into 
beautiful  bouquets  to  dazzle  and  captivate,  while  his  young  competi 
tor.  O'Connell-like, "  flung  a  brood  of  robust  thoughts  upon  the  world 
without  a  rag  to  cover  them."  After  a  long  and  spirited  canvass  Gov 
ernor  Willard  was  elected  by  a  largely  reduced  majority.  Four  years 
afterward  Mr.  MORTON  was  elected  lieutenant-governor,  and  in  the 
following  January,  Henry  S.  Lane  having  been  elected  to  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  he  was  inaugurated  governor  of  Indiana. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER  P.   MORTON.  75 

His  executive  career  was  cast  in  an  era  of  unparalleled  dangers 
and  difficulties,  beginning  at  a  time  when  the  slaveholding  States 
were  resolving  themselves  out  of  the  National  Union,  after  the 
Montgomery  Congress  had  assembled,  and  when  civil  war  seemed 
inevitable.  In  the  very  first  moment  of  his  official  life  he  stood  at 
the  threshold  of  the  most  extraordinary  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
nation,  an  epoch  destined  to  bring  out  his  immense  executive  and 
administrative  ability.  The  revolution  into  which  he  was  thrust  so 
suddenly  created  an  opportunity  in  which  he  was  permitted  to  be 
both  the  hero  of  a  principle  and  an  occasion.  In  that  stupendous 
crisis  every  public  man  was  expected  to  act  and  to  act  promptly  and 
decisively.  What  a  great  work  was  now  before  him !  In  that  day 
of  gloom,  of  blood,  of  tears,  and  of  peril  to  the  Republic,  he  did 
not  stand 

With  folded  arms  and  bated  breath,  irresolute, 

but  met  so  courageously  the  trying  responsibilities  of  his  office,  so 
ably  and  faithfully  discharged  every  duty  due  his  Government  and 
people,  that  he  speedily  became  one  of  the  marked  characters  in  this 
era,  so  crowded  with  illustrious  names.  Of  the  Union  people  of 
his  State  he  was  at  once  the  recognized  leader  and  oracle.  From 
the  beginning  he  was  an  undisguised  coercionist.  He  believed  that 
to  parley  with  treason  was  to  become  its  accomplice ;  that  the  nation 
could  not  hesitate  to  strike  when  the  wager  of  battle  was  tendered 
without  hazarding  its  existence  and  justly  meriting  the  contempt  of 
mankind. 

In  October,  1860,  in  a  public  address,  he  stated  his  position. 

Said  he — 

Shall  we  surrender  the  nation  without  a  struggle  and  let  the  Union  go  with  merely 
a  few  hard  words?  If  it  was  worth  a  bloody  struggle  to  establish  this  nation,  it  is 
worth  one  to  preserve  it,  and  I  trust  we  shall  not,  by  surrendering  with  indecent 
haste,  publish  to  the  world  that  the  inheritance  our  fathers  purchased  with  their 
blood  was  given  up  to  save  ours. 


76  ADDRESS   OF   MR.   BROWN   ON   THE 


Again  he  said : 

What  is  coercion  but  the  enforcement  of  the  law  ?  Is  anything  else  intended  or 
required?  Secession  or  nullification  can  only  be  regarded  by  the  General  Govern 
ment  as  individual  action  upon  individual  responsibility.  Those  concerned  in  it 
cannot  intrench  themselves  behind  the  forms  of  the  State  government  so  as  to  give 
their  conduct  the  semblance  of  legality,  and  thus  devolve  the  responsibility  upon 
the  State  government,  which  of  itself  is  irresponsible.  The  Constitution  and  laws 
of  the  United  States  operate  upon  individuals,  but  not  upon  States,  and  precisely  as 
if  there  were  no  States.  In  this  matter  the  President  has  no  discretion.  He  has 
taken  a  solemn  oath  to  enforce  the  laws  and  preserve  order,  and  to  this  end  he  has 
been  made  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy.  How  can  he  be  absolved 
from  responsibility  thus  devolved  upon  him  by  the  Constitution  and  his  official  oath  ? 

From  these  positions  he  never  retreated  and  in  their  maintenance 
he  never  faltered. 

When  the  war  cloud  burst  in  thunders  over  our  people  and  our 
fields  were  drenched  in  blood,  he  proved  himself  equal  to  the  occa 
sion.  He  grasped  the  dreadful  events  of  the  time  with  an  iron 
resolution  and  a  stern  hand;  he  hesitated  in  the  presence  of  no 
danger;  no  peril  overtook  him  unprepared,  and  his  resources  were 
as  boundless  as  the  necessity  that  required  them. 

A  petty  hand 

Can  steer  a  ship  becalmed,  but  he  that  will 
Govern  and  carry  her  to  ends,  must  know 
His  tides,  his  currents,  how  to  shift  his  sails, 
What  she  will  bear  in  foul,  what  in  fair  weathers, 
Where  her  springs  are,  her  leaks  and  how  to  stop  them, 
What  strands,  what  shelves,  what  rocks  do  threaten  her. 

He  who  would  pilot  a  State  safely  when  rocked  upon  the  rough 
sea  of  devastating  war  should  have  steady  nerves,  a  clear  head,  be 
capable  of  carrying  her  to  her  ends  in  spite  of  tempests  and  false 
lights  on  the  shore,  of  understanding  the  channels  of  human  thought, 
sympathy,  and  action,  of  molding  public  opinion  and  setting  the 
tides  and  currents  of  all  these  steadfastly  against  the  dangers  that 
imperil  her. 

Governor  MORTON,  by  the  judicious  management  of  his  State, 
which  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion  was  in  serious  danger  from 
a  divided  public  sentiment,  showed  himself  possessed  of  such 
qualities  in  an  unusual  degree. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  77 

To  the  cause  of  the  Union  throughout  that  protracted  struggle  he 
consecrated  every  energy  and  impulse  of  his  nature,  suffering  no  dis 
aster  to  appal,  no  defeat  to  discourage  him ;  but  in  every  vicissitude 
of  that  memorable  conflict  he  had  an  abiding  faith  in  the  ultimate 
success  of  the  national  cause.  To  him  the  war  was  a  contest  in 
which  slavery  was  measuring  swords  with  free  representative  gov 
ernment,  and  he  believed  the  victory  of  the  insurgents  would  be  the 
doom  of  the  Republic. 

During  the  war  his  labors  were  simply  Herculean.  No  call  was 
made  upon  his  gallant  State  but  that  was  responded  to  with  alacrity. 
Under  his  administration  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  troops 
were  mustered  and  sent  to  the  field;  nineteen  thousand  officers  put 
in  commission ;  arms,  clothing,  camps,  and  camp  equipage  supplied ; 
soldiers'  homes  erected,  sanitary  commissions  and  soldiers'  pay  agencies 
organized.  He  personally  supervised  every  detail  of  this  immense 
work.  He  anticipated  and  supplied  every  want  of  the  Indiana  sol 
dier.  He  kept  himself  informed  of  the  location  of  every  regiment, 
and  wherever  an  Indianian  followed  the  flag  or  pitched  his  tent, 
whether  on  the  Potomac  or  the  Mississippi,  under  the  pines  of  the 
Carolinas  or  on  the  prairies  of  the  Southwest,  he  was  the  object  of 
his  care.  Ere  the  smoke  was  lifted  from  the  battle-fields  his  volunteer 
surgeons  and  nurses,  with  medicines  and  sanitary  stores  for  the  sick 
and  wounded,  were  at  hand.  By  this  unceasing  watchfulness,  this 
tender  solicitude  for  the  volunteer,  he  proved  himself  worthy  of  the 
name  of  "  the  soldier's  friend." 

In  his  administration  of  the  civil  affairs  of  the  State  he  met  and  sur 
mounted  difficulties  of  the  most  perplexing  nature.  Here  again  he 
showed  his  superior  executive  ability.  When  a  hostile  Legislature 
adjourned  without  appropriating  money  with  which  to  carry  on  the 
State  government,  he  borrowed  $2,000,000  on  his  personal  assurance 


78  ADDRESS   OF   MR.   BROWN   ON  THE 

of  payment,  provided  for  the  prisons,  the  asylums,  kept  for  two  years 
the  whole  civil  machinery  in  motion  without  a  clog  or  a  jar,  and 
saved  the  honor  of  the  State  by  the  prompt  payment  of  the  interest 
on  its  debt. 

Twice  was  he  elected  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  his  party  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  He  entered  the  Senate  at  a  time  when 
Congress  had  to  deal  with  the  difficult  and  delicate  subject  of  recon 
structing  the  seceding  States.  In  this  important  and  exciting  con 
troversy  he  took  a  prominent  part.  Of  his  position  in  the  Senate  it 
is  enough  to  say  that  in  that  most  exciting  tribunal  he  was  accorded 
a  foremost  place.  By  some,  perhaps  by  many,  his  views  upon  the 
subject  of  reconstruction  were  thought  extreme;  but  it  was  a  time 
when  even  conservatism  was  extreme,  when  all  opinions  and  sentiments 
were  an  enthusiasm.  This  is  not  a  fit  time  to  approve  or  condemn 
his  opinions  or  his  policy.  We  were  too  much  actors  and  partizans 
in  that  controversy  and  we  stand  too  near  that  day  of  bitterness  to 
pass  impartial  judgment  on  its  statesmen  or  their  measures.  In  some 
future  day,  when  the  men  of  this  era  shall  have  passed  away  and 
their  legislation  and  their  ideas  shall  have  been  tested  by  years  of 
national  experience,  it  will  be  a  proper  time  to  praise  or  censure 
them.  Posterity  will  review  their  work  and  pass  upon  it  fairly; 
we  cannot. 

His  love  for  the  Union  was  an  absorbing  passion,  and  it  gave  color 
and  direction  to  every  thought  and  act  of  his  public  life.  He  be 
lieved  the  revolt  of  the  South  a  crime,  and  that — 

Universal  amnesty  would  remove  the  last  mark  of  legal  disapprobation  of  that 
crime;  that  it  would  be  a  declaration  to  posterity  that  there  was  nothing  wrong  in 
the  rebellion;  that  it  involved  no  criminality;  that  it  was  an  honest  difference  of 
opinion  between  parties,  without  crime  on  either  side. 

Upon  this  question  he  did  not  leave  his  opinion  to  conjecture.  In 
his  place  in  the  Senate  he  said : 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  79 


It  should  be  definitely  established  as  a  principle  in  our  Constitution,  both  by 
Judicial  decision  and  example  of  punishment,  that  rebellion  is  treason,  that  treason 
is  a  crime  which  may  not  be  committed  with  impunity. 

He  earnestly  desired  peace,  a  sincere  and  lasting  peace,  a  restored 
Union,  the  re-establishment  of  cordial  and  kindly  relations  between 
the  lately  hostile  sections,  but  was  inflexibly  opposed  to  a  truce  tink 
ered  up  by  the  adoption  of  what  he  conceived  to  be  temporary  and 
doubtful  expedients.  When  peace  came  he  meant  it  should  be  an 
abiding  peace,  one  acknowledging  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  law  and  respecting  and  securing  to  the  humblest  every  right 
of  American  citizenship.  The  sovereignty  of  right  over  force,  of 
intelligence  over  prejudice,  of  the  people  over  governments,  was  a 
cardinal  point  in  his  political  creed,  and  he  upheld  it  with  the  zeal 
of  an  apostle.  To  the  amendments,  to  every  advance  movement  of 
his  party,  he  gave  his  unqualified  support,  and  in  his  philosophy  no 
system  of  government  was  republican  that  was  not  at  once  a  charter 
of  human  rights  and  a  gospel  of  political  equality. 

As  a  party  man  he  was  extreme,  ofttimes  bitter,  assailing  parties 
and  measures  with  unusual  asperity.  To  him  politics  meant  war, 
and  in  the  heat  of  the  campaign  he  neither  asked  nor  gave  quarter. 
In  these  exasperating  party  struggles  he  was  aggressive,  assaulting 
his  adversaries  with  much  acrimony,  regardless  of  the  wounds  he 
might  inflict  or  the  retribution  he  might  provoke.  Naturally  he 
was  a  generous  and  chivalrous  man.  His  political  convictions,  how 
ever,  were  fashioned  in  the  midst  of  desperate,  lawless  war,  when 
there  were  beating  of  drums  and  mustering  of  armed  men,  when 
thousands  of  his  friends  and  neighbors  were  going  down  before  the 
iron  tempest  of  shot  and  shell.  He  should  be  judged  by  the  times 
in  which  he  lived. 

Poets  say  that  the  clouds  assume  the  form  of  the  countries  over  which  they  have 
passed,  and,  molding  themselves  upon  the  valleys,  plains,  or  mountains,  acquire 
their  shapes,  and  move  with  them  over  the  skies. 


80  ADDEESS  OF  ME.   BEOWN  ON  THE 

So  it  is  with  the  human  mind :  it  models  itself  upon  the  epoch  in 
which  it  lives  and  puts  itself  in  sympathy  with  the  impulses  and 
passions  of  the  times.  The  lessons  of  war  are  always  stern,  and  they 
temper  the  manners,  morals,  and  politics  of  the  people.  Love, 
charity,  the  tenderer  instincts  of  our  nature  are  speechless  in  the 
presence  of  its  desolation.  It  is  natural  that  the  man  should  gather 
inspiration  from  the  events  in  which  he  plays  a  leading  part,  and 
that  he  should  become,  to  a  large  extent,  the  impersonation  of  the 
period  in  which  he  lives  and  acts. 

As  a  political  leader,  an  organizer  of  parties  and  campaigns,  he 
was  unsurpassed.  His  party  accepted  his  leadership  unquestioned, 
and  with  confidence  that  he  would  win  success  if  victory  were  pos 
sible.  He  was  an  indefatigable  worker.  Although  partially  para 
lyzed  and  unable  to  walk  without  difficulty,  he  took  charge  of  the 
canvass  and  visited  and  spoke  in  every  section  of  his  State.  Unable 
to  stand  on  the  platform  he  sat  on  his  chair,  often  in  the  open  air, 
and  spoke  so  as  to  reach  the  uttermost  limits  of  the  vast  crowds  that 
assembled  to  hear  him.  Although  not  "fluent  like  Cicero,  nor  like 
Burke  magnificent/'  he  was  a  captivating  speaker,  and  the  people 
pressed  close  about  him  until  he  uttered  his  last  word.  In  his  ad 
dresses  he  reached  the  reason  of  the  multitude  and  often  aroused  an 
intense  enthusiasm. 

I  have  seen 

The  dumb  men  throng  to  see  him,  and  the  blind 
To  hear  him  speak:  The  matrons  flung  their  gloves, 
Ladies  and  maids  their  scarfs  and  handkerchiefs, 
Upon  him  as  he  passed. 


He— 


Did  pluck  allegiance  from  men's  hearts, 
Loud  shouts  and  salutations  from  their  mouths. 


As  a  public  speaker  he  was  clear,  distinct,  and  intense,  but  never 
tore  "a  passion  to  tatters."     He  made  his  words  the  servants  of  his 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  81 

thoughts  and  subordinated  style  to  matter.  He  was  seldom  hu 
morous,  and  never  coarse.  His  language  was  correct,  but  he  em 
bellished  his  sentences  with  none  of  the  charms  of  classical  literature 
or  the  beauties  of  poetry,  and  never  decked  a  sophistry  in  specious 
colors  simply  to  charm  or  allure.  Without  great  learning,  his  re 
serve  of  common  sense  supplied  ample  sources  of  argument,  and  his 
severe  logic  always  secured  attention,  and  even  challenged  the  re 
spect  of  those  who  differed  most  widely  from  him  in  opinion.  His 
manner  was  easy,  natural,  and  wholly  without  ostentation.  In  ar 
rangement  he  was  not  always  methodical,  but  his  argument  was 
given  in  unadorned  Saxon  and  with  a  perspicuity  that  made  it  com 
prehensible  to  the  most  uncultivated  mind.  He  was  essentially  a 
strong  man,  and  there  was  at  all  times  and  upon  all  occasions  an  im 
posing  vigor  and  compactness  in  his  language  and  his  logic  that 
kept  alive  the  interest  of  his  auditory.  He  was  only  eloquent  in  his 
ability  to  "  beat  down  the  argument  of  his  adversary  and  to  put  a 
better  one  in  its  place." 

If  to  abandon  a  position  found  to  be  unsupported  by  facts,  faulty 
in  logic,  or  rendered  untenable  by  the  alterations  of  time  or  condi 
tions,  subjects  one  to  the  charge  of  inconsistency,  Senator  MORTON 
was  not  always  consistent.  At  the  first  he  antagonized  the  policy 
out  of  which  the  fifteenth  amendment  grew  and  combated  it  with 
his  characteristic  ability,  but  it  is  to  his  credit  that  he  was  unwilling 
to  cling  to  an  error  simply  to  vindicate  his  consistency.  As  unyield 
ing  as  he  seemed  to  be  in  the  championship  of  his  opinions,  he 
recognized  the  law  of  progress  and  laid  under  contribution  the  light 
of  advancing  knowledge. 

Senator  MORTON  belonged  to  no  church.  Only  once  during  our 
long  acquaintance  did  I  hear  him  talk  at  any  length  on  the  subject 
of  religion.  We  were  going  to  a  political  meeting  and  he  had  with 


11 


82  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    BROWN   ON   THE 

him  a  copy  of  Lamartine's  Girondists,  from  which  he  read  me 
the  author's  account  of  the  deaths  of  Mirabeau,  the  tribune,  and  of 
Verginaud,  the  philosophic  deputy  of  the  Gironde.  He  spoke  of 
Mirabeau's  dying  words : 

Environ  me  with  music,  sprinkle  me  with  incense,  and  crown  me  with  flowers, 
that  I  may  pass  into  eternal  sleep. 

And  then  turning  to  the  story  of  the  last  night  passed  by  the 
condemned  deputies  in  the  old  oondargcrit  he  read  me  the  last  dis 
course  of  Verginaud.  Said  the  condemned  man : 

Death  is  but  the  greatest  act  of  life,  since  it  gives  birth  to  a  higher  state  of  ex 
istence.  Were  it  not  thus  there  would  be  something  greater  than  God.  It  would 
be  the  just  man  immolating  himself  uselessly  and  hopelessly  for  his  country.  This 
supposition  is  full  of  blasphemy,  and  I  repel  it  with  contempt  and  horror.  No! 
Verginaud  is  not  greater  than  God,  but  God  is  more  just  than  Verginaud,  and  will 
not  suffer  him  to  ascend  the  scaffold  but  to  justify  him  in  future  ages. 

He  then  put  in  contrast  the  philosophy  and  faith  of  these  historic 
men — Mirabeau  going  down  into  the  gloom  of  the  grave  without  a 
hope  beyond  and  blaspheming  the  religion  and  teachings  of  the  IVax- 
arene  with  his  last  breath;  Verginaud,  in  the  sight  of  the  guillotine, 
condemned  to  die  at  the  next  sunrise,  reproving  the  skeptical  levity 
of  his  colleagues,  and  discoursing  with  an  inspired  eloquence  upon 
immortality,  and  proclaiming  his  unfaltering  belief  that  his  martyr 
dom  would  conduct  him  through  the  grave  into  a  higher  and  hap 
pier  life.  Twenty  years  have  rendered  indistinct  the  language  of 
Senator  MORTON  on  this  occasion,  and  I  will  not  attempt  to  repeat 
it,  but  I  remember  that  this  reading  led  to  a  conversation  in  which 
he  expressed  his  faith  in  immortality  and  the  Christian  system.  He 
seemed  not  to  regard  the  ceremonial  of  religion,  but  believed  in  a 
religion  of  feeling,  of  works,  rather  than  of  opinion.  A  religion  of 
love  as  broad  and  high  as  the  Infinite,  embracing  the  whole  human 
race ;  one  that  discarded  the  "  dry  husks  of  creeds  "  and  planted  itself 
upon  the  broadest  philanthropy  and  tolerance. 


LIFE    AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER    P.    MORTOX.  83 

Senator  MORTOX  achieved  no  place  or  power  by  bribery,  nor  did 
he  retain  any  by  bargain  or  intrigue.  In  private  and  in  public  life 
he  was  an  honest  man.  As  governor  he  expended  millions  of  the 
public  moneys,  made  numerous  and  extensive  contracts  for  Army 
supplies,  and  after  a  most  rigid  inquiry  into  his  official  conduct  not 
a  farthing  was  found  to  have  been  misappropriated.  One  who 
bitterly  assailed  him  living,  after  his  death  paid  this  just  tribute  to 
the  integrity  of  his  official  life : 

Living  in  an  age  of  venality,  of  depravity  and  bribery,  he  kept  his  hands  clean. 
With  opportunities  for  enriching  himself  possessed  by  few,  he  contented  himself 
with  a  moderate  competency,  and  illustrated  by  the  simplicity  of  his  habits  the 
democracy  he  once  professed.  If  he  had  vices,  cupidity  was  not  one  of  them. 

But  at  last  it  is  in  the  domestic  relation  we  learn  men  best. 
Man's  domestic  life  is  a  sure  and  unerring  index  to  his  heart.  To 
know  him  he  must  be  seen  at  home,  in  that  mystic  circle  of  wife 
and  children ;  that  rallying-place  of  the  affections.  At  the  family 
hearth-stone,  where  his  joys  and  griefs,  his  hopes  and  his  aspirations 
are  laid  bare,  we  learn  his  inner  nature.  One  of  Senator  MORTON'S 
neighbors,  who  pronounced  his  funeral  discourse,  said  of  him: 

He  was  a  conspicuous  example  of  tenderness;  it  passed  the  bounds  of  ordinary 
family  love  as  the  friendship  of  Jonathan  and  David  surpassed  the  ordinary  tender 
ness  of  men.  It  was  a  passion  that  never  died  or  waned.  When  burdened  with 
such  cares  and  tangled  duties  as  no  other  governor  of  his  State  or  any  State  ever 
carried,  he  still  welcomed  to  his  crowded  office  at  all  hours  his  wife  and  children, 
and  never  failed  to  greet  them  with  kisses.  He  put  away  the  great  cares  of  State 
to  embrace  those  he  loved. 

To  his  home  and  family  he  was  devoted,  for  there  children  and 

A  loving  wife  beguiled  him  more 

Than  Fame's  emblazoned  zeal, 
And  one  sweet  note  of  tenderness 

Thau  Triumph's  wildest  peal. 

But  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was  weary  and  has  gone  to 

Rest  in  the  bosom  of  God,  till  the  brief  sleep 
Of  death  is  over,  and  a  happier  life 
Shall  dawn  to  waken  his  insensible  dust. 

All  that  is  mortal  of  him  who  for  sixteen  years  was  a  notable 
figure  in  the  most  eventful  and  heroic  era  of  the  Republic,  who 


84  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    IIARDENBERGII   ON   THE 

enchained  the  attention  of  listening  multitudes  and  Senates,  and  to 
whom  a  great  party  looked  for  counsel  and  leadership,  lies  in  the 
cemetery  near  the  capital  of  the  State  he  served  so  long  and  well. 
He  has  joined  the  pale  battalions  that  have  answered  the  roll-call 
of  the  great  Captain.  Near  by  the  grave  where  he  rests  lie  hun 
dreds  of  those  who,  in  answer  to  his  call,  went  out  to  the  battle 
fields  of  the  nation  and  challenged  death 

In  the  fevered  swamp  and  by  the  black  bayou 

and  in  the  din  of  the  fight.  Hereafter,  when  the  May-day  comes 
and  floral  offerings  are  brought  to  adorn  the  tombs  of  these  dead 
heroes,  his  hands  will  bear  no  wreath  and  decorate  no  grave.  He 
will  never  more  pay  tribute  to  their  patriotism  and  courage. 

For  his  lips  are  mute,  his  hands  palsied, 
And  his  eye  dark  with  the  mists  of  death, 

and  he  has  lain  down  to  sleep  with  them.  There  we  must  leave 
him,  for 

He  was  weary,  worn  with  watching, 

His  life-crown  of  power  hath  pressed, 
Oft  on  the  temples  sadly  aching — 

He  was  weary,  let  him  rest! 
Toll,  bells  at  the  capital ; 

Bells  of  the  land,  toll! 
Sob  out  your  grief  with  brazen  lungs; 

Toll!  toll!  toll! 


Address  of  Mr.  HARDENBERGH,  of  New  Jersey. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  it  has  been  a  custom  coeval  with  our  Govern 
ment  when  a  member  of  the  Senate  or  of  the  House  is  called  to  his 
final  rest  during  the  term  of  his  official  service  that  such  of  those 
who  served  with  him  as  may  be  selected  by  the  delegation  from  his 
own  State  shall  pronounce  his  eulogy  and  thus  give  additional 
solemnity  to  an  occasion  which  invites  us  to  the  most  sober  of 
reflections.  In  the  varied  phases  of  our  American  life  the  spirit  of 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  85 

progress  pays  but  little  attention  to  ancestral  homes,  and  but  few  of 
our  families  but  find  themselves  linked  by  kindred  with  other  por 
tions  of  our  Union,  and  notably  so  those  of  my  own  State  with  the 
young  empires  of  the  West. 

It  is  thus  of  New  Jersey  I  weave  to-day  a  chaplet  to  the  memory 
of  the  departed  Senator,  whose  immediate  family,  though  long 
since  removed  from  her  limits,  yet,  through  many  of  their  kindred, 
adorn  her  history  and  still  live  to  give  impress  to  her  policy  and 
her  progress.  Death  has  again  spread  his  sable  wing  over  this 
Capitol,  and  we  stand  to-day  within  its  shadow;  and  the  signifi 
cance  of  the  occasion  is  that,  though  a  great  man  has  fallen,  all  are 
equal  in  that  mysterious  presence.  What  is  position,  honor,  glory, 
when  the  inexorable  tyrant  treads  a  monarch  down  as  easily  as  a 
worm?  The  Senator  now  lying  so  low,  and  removed  so  far,  was  of 
the  most  distinguished  among  the  public  men  whose  names  were 
written  upon  the  roll  of  our  national  legislation. 

But  yesterday  he  stood  in  front  of  the  people,  his  ear  to  their 
heart,  his  voice  for  their  utterance.  The  cares  of  the  State,  of  the 
nation,  upon  his  shoulders,  he  grappled  with  those  high  concerns 
which  involve  the  empire  of  the  mind  and  sought  to  set  the  stars 
in  their  courses  which  should  direct  and  influence  the  generation  in 
which  he  lived  and  for  whom  he  labored.  To-day,  deaf  to  the 
applause  of  friends,  the  taunts  of  foes,  the  sweet  voices  of  love,  all 
heedless  of  his  fair  renown,  insensible  to  glory.  Between  that 
yesterday  and  this  to-day  is  an  abyss  no  line  has  sounded,  and  the 
world  with  all  its  wisdom  knows  not  what  it  is.  But  in  that  brief 
space  the  wave  of  life  has  come  and  gone.  We  saw  its  rising 
strength,  its  accumulating  volume,  its  bounding  and  storm-tossed 
crest.  As  we  gazed  it  had  broken  and  become  lost  in  the  eternal 
sea.  We  stand  upon  the  shore  and  seek  in  vain  the  refluent  waters. 


86  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    HARDENBERGH   ON   THE 

There  shall  be  no  return.  We  but  repeat  to-day  the  dirge  which 
ever  hath  been  chanted  since  time  began  and  will  be  carried  on  in 
melancholy  cadence  until  time  itself  shall  end. 

Partisanship  is  hushed  and  justice  finds  a  voice  in  the  presence  of 
the  dead.  Such  an  hour,  a  momentary  interlude  in  the  play  of  pas 
sion,  here  suggests  thoughts  as  to  the  value  of  great  reputations  and 
invokes  speculation  as  to  the  ultimate  influence  upon  the  state  of  a 
life  of  so  much  energy  and  a  career  of  such  distinguished  public 
service. 

No  stately  Parthenon  rears  its  fair  and  splendid  proportions  upon 
this  Capitol  Hill  to  enshrine  in  enduring  beauty  the  forms  of  those 
thought  worthy  of  remembrance  by  the  Republic.  No  Westminster 
Abbey,  with  its  time-defying  monuments  reared  by  a  mournful  state, 
wins  hither  the  wandering  and  weary  feet  of  the  pilgrims  of  Liberty 
to  the  eternal  twilight  of  the  dead ;  but  here  and  there,  in  quiet 
church-yards  all  over  the  land,  they  are  borne  amid  the  tearful  ben 
edictions  of  a  grateful  people  to  rest  with  their  ancestral  dust.  It 
makes  but  little  difference  where  lie  scattered  the  bones  of  the  brave 
six  hundred  of  Balaklava  while  the  English  tongue  continues  the 
question  "When  can  their  glory  fade?" 

Who  can  determine  the  influence  upon  the  Republic  of  that  little 
band  of  the  fathers  slowly  gathered  in  immortal  beauty  beneath  the 
dome  of  this  imposing  edifice?  We  pass  within  the  charmed  circle 
ere  we  enter  this  Chamber;  but  who  of  us  ever  stopped  a  moment 
before  them  that  did  not  feel  the  blood  leap  with  bright  current 
through  his  veins?  Who  ever  looked  upon  the  heroic  forms  of 
Samuel  Adams  and  Ethan  Allen  without  a  prayer  and  a  benediction, 
or  upon  the  chivalric  beauty  of  Baker  without  a  renewed  vow  of 
patriotic  devotion  ?  These  are  the  silent  influences  which  govern  us 
— these  the  invisible  hands  which  keep  alive  the  vestal  fires  upon 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  87 

our  altars,  the  unconscious  monitors  which  determine  and  regulate 
the  course  and  progress  of  humai>  liberty. 

We  care  but  little  where  lie  buried  the  fathers  of  the  Republic; 
the  earth  is  their  sepulcher,  the  "  wide-arched  empire "  their  mon 
ument,  and  every  language  beneath  the  sun  perpetuates  their  eulo 
gies.  Its  great  names  are  the  foundation  and  pillars  of  the  State; 
their  achievements  are  its  strength  and  their  reputation  its  highest 
glory.  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  for  many  years  has  been  a  conspicuous 
man.  Upon  his  introduction  to  public  life  he  gave  marked  evi 
dences  of  the  possession  of  those  qualities  which  would  insure  a 
successful  career.  He  seemed  born  to  be  a  ruler  among  men ;  with 
a  temper  and  spirit  that  would  not  easily  brook  opposition ;  with  a 
resolute  and  unflinching  power  of  will ;  with  unquestionable  reliance 
upon  his  own  convictions;  with  a  courage  which  was  undismayed 
by  the  presence  of  overwhelming  antagonism,  he  became  more  defi 
ant  as  the  elements  of  resistance  were  successfully  combined. 

Indeed  his  was  a  spirit  that  reveled  in  the  storm.  Amid  tranquil 
and  gentle  scenes  he  would  enjoy  repose,  but  that  rest  was  the  sweet 
est  which  followed  the  shock  of  battle  or  which  enabled  him  to 
recruit  his  energies  for  a  more  vigorous  and  determined  encounter. 
Not  in  the  peaceful  vale  of  life  where  the  very  winds  of  heaven  were 
subdued,  not  where  nature  herself  was  in  repose,  the  fields  smiling 
in  verdure  and  strewn  with  flowers,  inviting  to  luxury  and  ease,  did 
this  stern  Senator  find  fitting  material  to  gratify  ambition  or  sum 
mon  his  soul  to  loftiest  endeavor.  His  home  was  upon  Alpine 
heights,  with  the  tempest  and  the  avalanche  to  stir  his  heart  with 
their  wild  melancholy  to  its  profoundest  depths;  amid  scenes  of 
confusion  and  tumult,  of  popular  excitement  and  seething  con 
flicts  of  opinion,  his  was  the  master-spirit,  that  could  "ride  the 
whirlwind  and  direct  the  storm."  Fearless,  collected,  and  immov- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HARDENBERGH  ON  THE 


able,  he  was  not  to  be  diverted  from  his  purpose  by  intimidation 
or  execration  on  the  one  hand,  or  blandishments  or  cajolery  on  the 
other. 

His  position  was  never  one  of  doubt.  Always  at  the  front,  with 
ringing  voice,  the  mien  and  gesture  of  authority,  Achilles-like,  he 
"  pined  for  the  fierce  joy  and  tumult  of  the  fight." 

To  a  soul  so  tempered  the  events  of  the  past  twenty  years  have 
furnished  ample  opportunity  for  development.  The  threatening 
complications,  the  gathering  gloom,  the  menace  of  the  sections,  the 
mutual  defiance  which  charged  the  northern  and  the  southern  sky, 
unchained  the  lightning  in  his  breast,  and  with  swift,  unsparing  vigor 
he  launched  his  thunders  forth  until  hill  and  valley  echoed  back 
the  sound,  and  armed  men,  fresh  from  the  hearth,  the  work-shop, 
and  the  field,  were  marshaled  in  hot  haste  to  vindicate  what  they 
believed  to  be  the  dearest  right  of  the  citizen  and  the  most  sacred 
obligations  of  the  State.  No  man  can  charge  the  governor  of 
Indiana,  at  the  period  of  which  I  speak,  with  exercising  any 
timid,  doubtful,  or  vacillating  policy.  No  man  can  truthfully 
assert  that  he  faltered  once,  or  for  an  instant  quailed  in  assuming 
the  tremendous  responsibility  created  by  a  fierce  and  fratricidal 
war. 

The  fires  that  were  kindled  on  every  mountain-top,  the  trumpet 
tones  that  awakened  the  echoes  in  every  valley,  were  significant  to 
him  of  a  great  and  overmastering  emergency. 

A  national  catastrophe,  a  separation  into  disjointed  fragments  of 
the  glorious  structure  which  he  had  hoped  was  to  endure  throughout 
the  ages,  and  which,  as  the  highest  expression  of  human  wisdom, 
was  to  secure  for  the  race  the  perpetual  enjoyment  of  civil  and  re 
ligious  liberty  under  the  benign  protection  of  the  law — what  won 
der  that,  as  he  read  the  signals,  the  lurid  flame  shut  out  the  stars, 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OP   OLIVER   P.   MORTON.  89 

shut  out  the  heavens,  shut  out  all  thought  of  mercy  and  all  gentle 
thoughts.  At  home,  when  a  boy,  he  heard  from  his  father's  lips 
the  story  of  the  Republic :  The  unknown,  the  undiscovered  shore ; 
the  voyage  of  Columbus  over  an  untracked  waste ;  a  new  world  be 
yond  the  setting  sun  like  a  star  risen  from  the  ocean,  with  its  strange 
inhabitants,  its  wondrous  wealth,  its  marvelous  promise ;  the  bleak 
December  where  the  pilgrim  fathers  built  on  a  rock  the  great  cathe 
dral  of  freedom,  with  the  sea  chanting  its  eternal  anthems ;  the  des 
olation  of  savage  life ;  the  war-whoop,  the  tomahawk,  the  scalping- 
knife;  the  perpetual  struggles  of  the  colonists;  the  convulsions 
which  attended  the  birth  of  States;  the  sublime  utterances  of  inde 
pendence;  the  battle-fields  of  the  Revolution;  the  peerless  Wash 
ington;  the  government  established  under  the  Constitution;  the 
consummate  wisdom  which  distinguished  the  great  charter  of  human 
rights;  the  marvelous,  the  incredible  energy  which  has  reclaimed  a 
continent  from  a  weary  waste  to  all  the  great  uses  of  the  most 
advanced  civilization ;  a  country,  a  nation,  his  own,  his  grandsires, 
his  children's,  theirs  to  the  end  of  time  with  its  glorious  memories, 
its  hallowed  associations  and  its  golden  promise — "all  this  rushed 
with  his  blood,"  and  as  he  saw  the  glittering  ranks  and  heard  the 
firm  tread  of  hostile  armies  he  had  but  one  thought,  he  breathed 
but  one  prayer. 

It  was  to  strive  to  the  uttermost  with  all  the  power  which  God 
had  given  him  that  he  might  resist  with  all  the  aids  to  be  derived 
from  earth  and  sea  and  sky  or  from  the  powers  beneath  the  earth. 

He  met  the  requirements  of  the  hour  with  a  fortitude,  a  patience, 
a  laborious  industry,  an  unceasing  faith  in  the  final  success  which 
found  no  discouragement,  and  no  man  rejoiced  with  a  more  exceed 
ing  joy  than  did  he  when  the  issues  were  determined  and  the  unity 
and  indivisibility  of  the  nation  were  established  in  peace. 


12 


90        ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HARDENBERGH  ON  THE 

It  could  not  be  supposed  that  a  man  of  such  force,  so  much  weight 
of  brain,  so  much  strength  of  will,  so  much  intense  individuality, 
could  pass  through  such  a  strife  without  forming  conclusions  of  a 
decided  and  permanent  character.  With  him  principles  were  inde 
pendent  of  the  man.  He  would  combat  opinions  without  respect 
to  persons.  He  had  no  disposition  to  compromise,  to  arrange,  to 
weigh  one  force  against  another,  to  arbitrate  in  doubtful  matters, 
to  give  and  take  as  policy  should  decide,  to  smooth  down  rough 
edges  that  a  wrong  should  insinuate  itself  upon  the  side  of  right  and 
find  encouragement  on  the  ground  of  avoiding  useless  controversy. 
With  him  the  path  of  duty  only  was  the  path  of  safety,  and  no 
matter  through  what  difficult  or  dangerous  roads  it  were  neces 
sary  to  traverse  to  perform  that  duty  as  he  understood  it,  he 
would  be  deterred  by  no  fears,  no  threats,  no  inducements  of  per 
sonal  aggrandizement,  to  abandon  the  severer  and  more  painful 
course. 

It  may  be  no  disparagement  to  say  that  he  was  ambitious  of 
power — not  so  much  the  direct  control  of  men  as  the  ability  to  use 
them  to  enforce  and  carry  into  effect  those  measures  he  conceived  to 
be  the  wisest  and  the  best  adapted  to  promote  the  ends  he  had  in 
view.  And  is  there  a  man  upon  the  roll  of  all  such  as  have  been 
distinguished  in  our  annals  who  would  not  seek  and  exercise  such 
power?  No  man  has  become  truly  great  by  negation.  It  is  the 
aggressive,  the  positive,  the  calculating  and  determined  energy  of 
fearless  and  tireless  pursuits  which  in  the  history  of  mankind  has 
distinguished  one  man  above  another. 

We  all  remember  with  what  apparent  vindictiveness  and  harsh 
ness  he  insisted  upon  the  scheme  of  reconstruction.  He  was  unwill 
ing  to  relegate  power  to  other  hands  than  those  who  would  use  it 
as  in  his  judgment  it  should  be  used.  But  he  was  better  adapted : 


L.IFK   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER    P.    MORTON.  91 

the  elements  of  which  he  was  composed  found  more  congenial  labor 
in  resisting  disintegration  than  in  rebuilding  the  shattered  frame 
work  of  the  Republic.  His  was  a  special  ministry,  and  well  and 
bravely  did  he  exercise  it. 

Senator  MORTON  was  no  time-server;  he  never  bent  "the  preg 
nant  hinges  of  the  knee"  that  thrift  might  follow  fawning.  He 
was  direct,  outspoken,  without  a  shadow  of  hypocrisy,  and  in  all 
his  personal  relations  he  was  the  affectionate  counselor,  the  steadfast 
friend,  the  generous  patron,  the  disinterested  ally,  the  uncompro 
mising  enemy  of  craft,  of  dissimulation,  as  well  as  of  cant  and 
insincerity. 

How  grateful  to  the  memory  of  those  who  were  upon  terms  of 
privacy  and  intimacy  with  him  must  be  the  recollections  of  his  many 
endearing  and  kindly  virtues.  To  all  rugged  and  manly  attributes 
he  added  a  tender  and  gentle  spirit  which  especially  fitted  him  for 
companionship  and  drew  others  to  him  with  hooks  of  steel.  Strong 
in  his  attachments,  affectionate  in  his  sympathies,  he  clung  to  the 
ties  of  kindred  and  of  domestic  love  with  an  ardor  and  sensibility 
no  time,  no  distance  could  weaken  or  diminish.  None  other  than 
those  who  thus  knew  him  best  can  so  well  appreciate  the  sore 
bereavement  his  departure  has  occasioned;  but  the  sacredness  of 
private  grief  we  shall  not  violate. 

His  public  career  is  before  the  world.  Prominent  in  the  councils 
of  the  nation,  a  gladiator  upon  the  arena,  he  challenged  and  he 
defied  criticism  of  that  august  body  whose  deliberations  are  before 
the  world;  he  was  of  the  foremost  in  debate. 

He  easily  extracted  the  pith  and  marrow  of  a  subject  and 
hurled  his  lance  at  the  weak  points  of  an  adversary's  armor  with 
remarkable  skill  and  power.  He  could  take  heavy  blows  without 
wincing,  and  one  could  not  tell  from  any  external  expression 


92  ADDRESS   OF   ME.    HAEDENBEEGH   ON   THE 

whether  a  vital  point  had  been  penetrated  or  not.  I  attempt  not 
to  delineate  the  peculiar  qualities  of  the  great  Senator's  mind.  An 
accurate  analysis  requires  far  more  comprehensive  knowledge  than 
mine  can  furnish  to  set  forth  in  just  measure  and  accurate  detail 
the  strength  and  power,  the  logical  clearness,  the  profound 
thought,  and  acute  discrimination  which  distinguished  his  career. 
As  a  party  man  his  allegiance  was  faithful  and  his  discipline 


exacting. 


I  do  not  propose  to  consider  the  personal  antagonism  or  the 
partisan  rancor  evoked  by  a  character  so  uncompromising  and  so 
determined.  In  the  collision  of  opposing  interests,  in  the  struggle 
to  establish  principles  of  administration  irreconcilable  and  incapable 
of  adjustment,  the  hostility  of  sects,  of  parties,  and  of  individuals 
is  a  necessary  consequence  attending  elaborate  and  inflammable  dis 
cussion.  But  a  temper  irritated  by  the  malice  of  envy  or  aroused 
by  the  violence  of  revenge  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  earnest 
ness  which  animates  conviction  or  the  fortitude  which  inspires  the 
assertion  of  unpopular  but  far-reaching  and  comprehensive  methods. 
The  surface  of  the  ocean  may  be  vexed  by  inconstant  and  variable 
winds  chafing  the  current  and  driving  them  from  their  course.  It 
is  the  prolonged  and  mighty  sweep  of  the  tempest  at  whose  com 
mands  the  caverns  of  the  deep  are  unlocked,  her  billows  lifted  to 
the  skies,  and  the  startled  shores  lashed  and  quivering  beneath  their 
remorseless  fury. 

Mr.  Speaker,  on  an  occasion  like  this  it  is  not  becoming,  as  it 
would  not  be  desirable,  to  arraign  positions  assumed  upon  questions 
which  have  been  the  subject  of  high  controversy  within  these  legis 
lative  Chambers,  and  which  have  not  yet  passed  from  the  public 
observation.  His  opponents  recognize  his  ability,  for  they  have 
felt  his  power.  The  arm  so  often  raised  to  strike  is  nerveless;  the 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  93 

flashing  eye  is  closed;  the  stalwart  form  is  prostrate;  all-conquering 
death  hath  sealed  the  lips  so  eloquent  to  maintain  and  to  defend  in 
high  and  well-considered  argument.  We  remember  only  that  he 
was  true  to  himself  and  false  to  no  man ;  that  his  speech  was  the 
faithful  interpreter  of  his  own  thoughts  and  his  conduct  the  just 
expression  of  his  judgment;  that  he  overtasked  the  prime  of  his 
life  in  laborious  efforts  to  inaugurate  a  policy  which  he  believed 
would  best  promote  the  general  welfare;  that,  harassed  by  physical 
infirmities,  disturbed  by  the  encroachments  of  disease,  oppressed  by 
the  solicitude  which  accompanies  a  sense  of  wasting  powers,  he 
nerved  himself  with  unfaltering  courage  to  meet  the  obligations  of 
the  hour. 

He  fed  the  exhausting  flame  of  life  upon  an  altar  consecrated  to 
the  public  service,  and  only  with  his  last  sigh  expressed,  in  the 
pathetic  words,  "I  am  worn  out/'  surrendered  to  the  inevitable 
conditions  which  limit  all  ambition  and  all  hope  when  earth  is 
fading  from  sight  and  the  weary  eye  is  straining  toward  the  im 
mortal  shore. 

But  still  the  man  remains  immortal  in  the  imperishable  record 
he  has  made,  in  the  unfading  honors  he  has  won,  in  the  deathless 
influence  of  his  precepts  and  his  example. 

What  means  this  brief  span  of  life,  with  its  cares,  its  aspirations, 
its  struggles,  its  triumphs,  its  defeats? 

Are  the  waters  of  Lethe  to  drown  all  in  dark  oblivion  and  the 
devouring  grave  to  consume  these  activities  forever?  Ah,  Mr. 
Speaker,  it  were  but  a  poor  reward  for  all  our  ambition  that  the 
laurel-leaf  should  be  entwined  upon  our  tomb,  though  the  genera 
tions  of  the  future  even  should  keep  it  green  with  their  tears.  Man 
in  all  his  wide  domain  hath  no  gift  of  honor  which  can  satisfy  the 
desires  of  an  immortal  soul. 


ADDEESS   OP   MR.    HUNTER   ON   THE 


Let  passion  be  hushed,  for  the  grave  is  silent.  Let  flowers  only 
spring  from  the  mold,  as  emblems  of  that  purer  and  better  nature 
which  alone  will  live  in  our  memories  and  shall  be  cherished  within 
our  hearts. 

The  hearse  is  passed,  the  knell  Is  rung, 
The  pageant  and  the  pomp  are  done; 
A  statesman  lies  at  Christian  rest, 
Ite,  conclamalum  est. 


Address  of  Mr.  HUNTER,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  Indiana's  greatest  states 
man,  is  numbered  among  the  illustrious  dead.  He  was  a  native  of 
that  State,  born  in  Wayne  County,  August  4,  1823,  and  always 
remained  a  resident  of  it  until  his  death.  He  died  at  the  city  of 
Indianapolis,  November  1,  1877,  in  his  fifty-fifth  year. 

Among  those  who  have  attained  national  prominence  as  leaders 
of  men,  either  in  the  early  years  of  the  Republic  or  in  the  not  less 
eventful  times  of  our  own  day,  there  has  been  no  one  in  all  the  long 
and  glorious  list  of  patriotic  statesmen  who  was  so  much  to  his  State 
as  was  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  to  Indiana;  no  one  whose  record  was 
so  great  a  part  of  his  State's  history ;  no  one  whose  influence  in  his 
State  was  so  powerful  and  so  universally  acknowledged;  no  one 
whose  death  has  left  so  great  a  void  or  been  more  deeply  and  sin 
cerely  mourned. 

Long  shall  we  seek  his  likeness— long  in  vain, 
And  turn  to  all  of  him  which  may  remain, 
Sighing  that  Nature  form'd  but  one  such  man. 

Governor  MORTON  came  of  good  old  English  stock  that  emi 
grated  to  this  country  about  the  time  of  the  breaking  out  of  the 
revolutionary  war,  whose  most  prominent  traits  of  character  he 
inherited  in  an  unusual  degree.  His  strong  practical  common  sense, 
his  indomitable  will,  his  inflexibility  of  purpose,  his  courage  that 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  95 

never  faltered  in  opposing  what  he  believed  to  be  wrong,  his  con 
fidence  that  such  opposition  must  end  in  victory,  however  gloomy 
might  seem  the  present  prospect — all  these  were  ancestral  traits  that 
gave  to  his  life  a  large  measure  of  success  and  placed  him  among 
the  most  conspicuous  in  the  political  history  of  the  nation. 

He  was  not  born  to  inherit  riches  or  to  be  nursed  in  the  lap  of 
luxury;  he  had  none  of  the  advantages  which  ample  fortune 
bestows ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  his  ambition  repressed  or  "  the 
genial  current  of  his  soul"  frozen  by  the  cruel  frosts  of  poverty. 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  but  four  years  old,  and  several  years 
of  his  childhood  were  passed  with  her  relatives  in  Springdale,  Ohio. 
His  facilities  for  acquiring  information  were  meager,  but  he  made 
the  most  of  them  and  gained  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  rudi 
mentary  branches  of  a  common  English  education.  Whether  on 
the  rude  bench  of  a  country  school-house  during  a  brief  winter 
session  or  toiling  at  the  hatter's  trade,  to  which  he  was  apprenticed 
at  fifteen  years  of  age,  he  wasted  no  opportunity  of  increasing  his 
mental  stores.  His  leisure  hours  and  the  odds  and  ends  of  time 
which  most  boys  devote  to  play  were  utilized  by  him  in  reading 
and  study.  He  did  not  neglect  his  trade.  There  was  in  him  no 
contempt  of  labor,  no  scorn  of  laborers,  for  he  always  honored  each ; 
but  his  rapid  intellectual  growth,  his  unusual  fondness  for  reading, 
and  his  remarkable  judgment,  which  prompted  him  to  select  the 
best  standard  authors,  historical,  scientific,  and  metaphysical,  induced 
the  friends  who  were  most  interested  in  his  we)  (are  to  give  him  an 
opportunity  for  further  and  more  rapid  progress  in  mental  culture. 

He  attended  a  seminary  in  his  native  county  and  subsequently 
entered  Miami  University,  at  Oxford,  Ohio,  but  did  not  remain 
there  to  complete  the  regular  course.  At  college  he  attained  reputa 
tion  as  a  ready  and  forcible  debater.  Rapidity  of  thought  and 


96  ADDEESS  OP  MR.  HUNTER  ON  THE 

clearness  of  expression  were  his  characteristics  then  as  in  after  years. 
While  others  were  pondering  the  proper  words  with  which  to  fitly 
clothe  their  ideas,  his  thoughts  found  instant  expression  in  plain, 
forcible,  and  appropriate  terras.  Throughout  his  life  he  showed 
wonderful  command  of  language,  and  yet  his  store  of  words  was 
neither  rich  nor  beautiful,  but  strong,  pointed,  and  convincing.  He 
often  evinced  great  mastery  of  eloquence,  swaying  the  minds  of 
juries,  popular  audiences,  and  legislative  bodies,  but  his  success  as  a 
speaker  was  not  owing  so  much  to  the  elegant  manner  of  expression 
as"  to  the  strong,  compact,  and  logical  thoughts  so  forcibly  uttered 
by  him.  He  spoke  the  language  of  the  masses  so  that  "the  com 
mon  people  heard  him  gladly,"  he  used  no  word  beyond  their  com 
prehension;  but  so  fitly  chosen  were  his  words  that  they  were 
equally  well  adapted  to  the  ear  of  a  statesman,  a  common  laborer  or 
a  scholar,  to  the  Senate  or  to  a  promiscuous  audience  upon  the  stump. 

While  others  sought  to  erect  gorgeous  palaces,  with  columns  and 
shafts  of  finely  carved  and  polished  marble,  in  which  ornamentation 
and  beautiful  finish  were  more  studied  than  strength  of  structure, 
he  preferred  to  build  strong  walls  of  plain  and  solid  granite. 

Leaving  college  at  the  ago  of  twenty-two,  he  began  the  study  of 
law  at  Centreville,  in  his  native  county,  and  prosecuted  this  study 
with  the  utmost  energy  and  thoroughness.  He  brought  to  the  task 
exhaustless  patience,  keen  perception,  a  wonderfully  retentive  mem 
ory,  and  robust  physical  health.  He  worked  with  untiring  zeal 
and  with  a  firm  determination  to  master  each  step  in  his  upward 
and  onward  career.  Admitted  to  the  bar  in  1847,  he  struggled  for 
success  amid  many  discouragements;  but  courage  and  pluck 
triumphed ;  he  attained  a  large  and,  for  those  days  and  that  section, 
a  lucrative  practice.  In  civil  and  criminal  cases  he  was  alike  emi 
nent;  and,  had  he  continued  to  devote  his  time  and  energies  to  his 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  97 

profession,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  would  have  attained 
the  highest  professional  fame  and  ample  fortune.  Few  men  ever 
surpassed  him  in  power  to  plant  conviction  in  the  mind  of  a  court 
or  jury,  which  made  him  successful  as  a  practitioner  and  soon  gave 
him  the  reputation  as  an  attorney  who  seldom  lost  a  case. 

To  review  the  political  career  of  Senator  MORTON  would  consume 
hours,  where  I  have  only  moments.  He  was  originally  a  democrat, 
but  cast  off  his  allegiance  to  that  party  when  its  proslavery  tend 
encies  were  manifested  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise; 
and  from  that  hour  to  the  close  of  his  life  he  was  among  the  fore 
most,  often  the  most  conspicuous,  opponent  to  the  policy  and  meas 
ures  of  the  democratic  party. 

The  month  of  November,  1860,  found  the  country  hopelessly 
and  helplessly,  to  all  appearances,  drifting  to  certain  ruin.  Secession 
conventions  had  been  called  in  the  South,  armies  were  being  formed 
there  and  drilled,  and  the  determination  of  political  leaders  in  that 
section  to  destroy  the  Union  was  but  too  painfully  apparent.  In 
the  North  there  was  almost  fatal  hesitancy  and  a  spirit  of  compro 
mise  that,  had  it  been  permitted  to  prevail,  would  have  been  a 
death-blow  to  national  unity.  It  was  at  that  critical  moment,  says 
a  recent  biographer  of  Senator  MORTON — 

That  a  strong  man  rose  in  Indianapolis  and  sounded  the  key-note  of  northern 
patriotism.  His  words  were  bold,  his  bearing  was  brave,  his  enthusiasm  was 
inspired.  His  central  thought  was  that  the  Constitution  provided  no  way  for  the 
Southern  States  to  get  out  of  the  Union,  and  that  they  must  be  kept  in,  if  need  be 
by  force.  "The  whole  question,"  said  he,  "is  summed  up  in  this  proposition:  'Are 
we  one  nation,  one  people,  or  thirty-three  nations,  or  thirty-three  independent  and 
petty  States? '  The  statement  of  the  proposition  furnishes  the  answer.  If  we  are 
one  nation  then  no  State  has  a  right  to  secede.  Secession  can  only  be  the  result  of 
successful  revolution.  I  answer  the  question  for  you,  and  I  know  that  my  t  nswer 
will  find  a  true  response  in  every  true  American  heart,  that  we  are  one  people,  one 
nation,  undivided  and  indivisible.  If  South  Carolina  gets  out  of  the  Union,  I  trust 
it  will  be  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  after  our  best  efforts  have  failed  to  compel  her 
to  submission  to  the  laws."  This  was  what  the  North  was  waiting  to  hear.  The 
speech  went  like  wild-fire  over  the  country.  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  that  it  covered 
the  whole  ground  and  outlined  the  policy  which  he  would  pursue.  It  was  not  only 
wise  and  patriotic;  it  was  prophetic. 


13 


98  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HUNTER  ON  THE 

In  1860  he  was  elected  lieutenant-governor,  and  in  January, 
1861,  he  became  governor,  by  the  election  of  Governor  Henry  S. 
Lane  to  the  United  States  Senate,  and  from  that  moment  he  became 
prominent  before  the  nation,  prominent  as  few  men  ever  have  been 
or  ever  can  be,  for  the  occasion  of  his  prominence  was  an  event  not 
likely  to  recur  again  in  our  national  history. 

It  is  as  the  war  governor  of  Indiana  that  MORTON  is  best  known, 
and  whoever  shall  truly  write  the  history  of  that  eventful  period 
cannot  fail  to  place  the  name  and  deeds  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON 
among  the  very  foremost  of  those  that  saved  the  Republic.  In  his 
State,  more  than  any  other  of  the  Northern  States,  there  was  sym 
pathy  with  the  rebellion  and  opposition  to  the  war.  But  Governor 
MORTON'S  resistless  energy  swept  all  sympathy  and  opposition  from 
his  pathway,  and  inspired  even  the  timid  and  faint-hearted  with 
something  of  his  own  great  courage,  his  own  unyielding  hope.  His 
capacity  as  an  organizer  and  his  unparalleled  executive  ability 
astonished  and  delighted  all  loyal  men.  He  had  troops  ready  in 
anticipation  of  calls;  no  call  for  men  ever  elicited  a  tardy  or  a 
reluctant  response,  and  in  almost  every  instance  Indiana  was  the 
first  State  to  send  a  cheering  reply  to  President  Lincoln  when  he 
asked  for  fresh  levies  of  troops.  In  advance  of  every  other  State 
of  the  West  in  preparation  for  war,  Indiana  led  all  others  in  her 
care  for  soldiers  in  the  field ;  and  there  was  not  an  Indiana  soldier 
in  any  of  our  armies  who  did  not  know  and  feel  that  Governor 
MORTON  was  his  friend. 

Through  all  these  terrible  years,  with  the  same  intense  earnest 
ness,  the  same  untiring  energy,  the  same  unflinching  loyalty,  he 
continued  to  support  the  Union  cause  and  to  keep  his  State  in  the 
front  rank  of  those  on  which  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  he  could  rely  in 
any  emergency  for  men  and  money.  Treason  in  his  own  State 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OP   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  99 

could  not  dishearten  nor  deter  him,  nor  could  it  find  him  unpre 
pared  to  meet  and  crush  it  wherever  it  undertook  to  assert  itself. 
Hatred  and  malice  could  not  divert  his  attention  for  one  moment 
from  the  great  cause  of  the  imperiled  Union.  With  sublime  forti 
tude  he  pressed  on  and  bore  others  with  him  to  the  glorious  end ; 
and  had  he  done  no  more,  had  his  life  terminated  with  the  close  of 
the  war,  he  would  still  have  lived  long  enough  to  inscribe  his  name 
among 

The  few,  the  immortal  names, 
That  were  not  born  to  die. 

As  a  Senator  his  career  was  as  full  of  hope  and  promise  to  the 
loyal  element  of  the  nation  as  was  the  bow  in  the  cloud  to  Noah 
and  his  children.  To  him  more  than  to  any  other  man  is  due  the 
credit  of  such  legislation  as  has  preserved  some  portion  of  the  fruits 
of  Union  victories  in  the  late  war.  In  the  Senate  he  passed  through 
no  probationary  state,  but  at  once  became  prominent  and  soon  the 
recognized  leader  of  the  dominant  party  in  that  Chamber. 

As  a  debater,  as  a  constant  participant  in  extemporaneous  dis 
cussion,  he  has  had  few  equals,  if  any  superior,  in  the  Senate  at 
any  period  of  our  history.  It  was  not  uncommon  for  him  in  a  ten- 
minute  off-hand  speech  to  utterly  destroy  the  effect  of  a  long  and 
elaborate  oration.  The  most  eloquent  statesmen,  the  ripest  scholars, 
and  most  graceful  speakers  dreaded  contact  with  the  huge  bowlders 
hurled  by  him  in  debate  with  so  much  precision,  force,  and  effect 
iveness  in  the  form  of  strong,  plain,  concise,  and  logical  arguments, 
and  with  which  he  assaulted  the  positions  of  all  who  opposed  him. 
With  the  great  measures  of  the  American  Congress  which  connect 
themselves  with  the  questions  of  liberty,  equality,  and  human 
rights  the  name  of  Senator  MORTON  is  indissolubly  associated. 

The  political  opponents  of  Senator  MORTON  always  respected 
him  for  his  sincerity  and  straightforwardness.  He  detested  hypoc- 


100  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    HUNTER   ON   THE 

risy  and  despised  all  cowardly  and  underhanded  dealings.  He 
fought  boldly,  and  always  carried  the  positions  of  the  enemy  by 
direct  assault  in  open  day,  and  he  never  left  his  opponents  in  doubt 
for  one  moment  as  to  how  he  would  act  in  any  emergency.  They 
knew  that  he  would  oppose  them  openly,  fairly,  manfully,  and 
gain  his  victory,  if  at  all,  by  such  means  only  as  are  approved  by 
honorable  men. 

As  a  friend  Senator  MORTON  was,  in  the  highest  and  best  sense 
of  the  word,  loyal.  His  attachments  were  not  hastily  formed ;  were 
based  on  strong  grounds  and  not  easily  shaken.  Much  of  his  influ 
ence  over  men  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  true  to  his  friends. 

In  the  social  circle  he  was  attractive.  He  was  not  only  a  good 
talker,  but  enjoyed  listening  to  others  who  were  interesting  in  con 
versation,  and  had  the  happy  faculty  of  making  even  the  most 
humble  feel  at  ease  and  unembarrassed  in  his  presence.  He  was 
never  obtrusive  with  counsel,  but  free  to  give  it  when  asked.  He 
was  gentle,  genial,  and  full  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness.  He 
loved  children  and  was  beloved  by  them.  At  his  home  with  his 
family  there  was  no  kinder  husband  nor  tenderer  father,  and  no 
man  was  ever  rewarded  with  greater  devotion  and  purer  affection 
than  were  lavished  on  him  by  the  members  of  his  domestic  circle. 

For  many  years  and  under  varied  circumstances,  in  peace  and 
war,  in  sunshine  and  in  shadow,  it  was  my  privilege  to  know  and 
to  be  admitted  to  the  friendship  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON.  I  hon 
ored  him  as  a  man  and  loved  him  as  a  friend.  It  is,  perhaps,  too 
soon  after  the  bitterness  and  heart-burnings  of  the  political  strife 
of  the  last  fifteen  years  to  expect  that  all  should  do  justice  to  his 
noble  qualities  of  head  and  heart.  He  was  as  little  influenced  by 
personal  animosities  as  any  man  I  ever  knew.  He  could  hate  what 
he  deemed  political  heresies,  and  yet  cherish  kindly  feelings  toward 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  101 

those  who  held  such  views.  Many  of  his  warm  and  most  intimate 
friends  were  opposed  to  him  in  politics.  But  he  never  allowed  this 
difference  of  opinion  to  affect  his  friendship.  Each  day  of  his  life 
he  grew  stronger  in  the  affections  of  the  people  of  his  own  State  as 
well  as  those  of  the  nation,  and  to  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  more  than 
any  other  man  did  they  look  for  a  proper  solution  of  the  various 
troubles,  political  and  financial,  which  now  surround  and  embarrass 
the  country.  His  loss,  therefore,  was  not  that  merely  of  a  great 
and  good  man,  but  it  was  a  national  calamity. 

In  his  last  sickness  he  was  a  great  sufferer,  but  he  bore  his  afflic 
tions  with  patience  and  resignation,  and  when  worn  out  by  disease, 
with  a  heart  free  from  malice,  he  closed  his  high  career  in  the  arms 
of  death,  loved,  honored,  and  respected  by  the  people  of  his  State 
and  nation,  whom,  he  served  so  faithfully  and  so  well. 


Address  of  Mr.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 

For  all  the  great  professions  known  among  Americans  special 
training-schools  have  been  established  or  encouraged  by  law  except 
for  that  of  statesmanship.  And  yet  no  profession  requires  for  its 
successful  pursuit  a  wider  range  of  general  and  special  knowledge 
or  a  more  thorough  and  varied  culture. 

Probably  no  American  youth,  unless  we  except  John  Quincy 
Adams,  was  ever  trained  with  special  reference  to  the  political  ser 
vice  of  his  country. 

In  monarchial  governments  not  only  wealth  and  rank  but  polit 
ical  authority  descends  by  inheritance  from  father  to  son.  The 
eldest  son  of  an  English  peer  knows  from  his  earliest  childhood 
that  a  seat  awaits  him  in  the  House  of  Lords.  If  he  be  capable 
and  ambitious  the  dreams  of  his  boyhood  and  the  studies  of  his 


102 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    GARFIELD   OX    THE 


youth  are  directed  toward  the  great  field  of  statesmanship.  To  the 
favored  few  this  system  affords  many  and  great  advantages,  and 
upon  the  untitled  many,  whom  "birth's  invidious  bar"  shuts  out 
from  the  highest  places  of  power,  it  must  rest  with  discouraging 
weight. 

Our  institutions  confer  special  privileges  upon  no  citizen,  and  we 
may  now  say  they  erect  no  barrier  in  the  honorable  career  of  the 
humblest  American.  They  open  an  equal  pathway  for  all,  and 
invite  the  worthiest  to  the  highest  seats.  The  fountains  of  our 
strength  as  a  nation  spring  from  the  private  life  and  the  voluntary 
efforts  of  forty-five  millions  of  people.  Each  for  himself  confronts 
the  problem  of  life,  and  amid  its  varied  conditions  develops  the 
forces  with  which  God  has  endowed  him.  Meantime  the  nation 
moves  on  in  its  great  orbit  with  a  life  and  destiny  of  its  own,  each 
year  calling  to  its  aid  those  qualities  and  forces  which  arc  needed 
for  its  preservation  and  its  glory.  Now  it  needs  the  prudence  of 
the  counselor,  now  the  wisdom  of  the  law-giver,  and  now  the  shield 
of  the  warrior  to  cover  its  heart  in  the  day  of  battle.  And  when 
the  hour  and  the  man  have  met  and  the  needed  work  has  been 
done,  the  nation  crowns  her  heroes  and  makes  them  her  own 
forever. 

Such  hours  we  have  often  seen  during  the  last  seventeen  years, 
hours  which  have  called  forth  the  great  elements  of  manhood  and 
strength  from  the  ranks  of  our  people  and  crowded  our  pantheon 
with  new  accessions  of  glory. 

Seventeen  years  ago,  at  a  moment  of  supreme  peril,  the  nation 
called  upon  the  people  of  twenty-two  States  to  meet  around  her 
altar  and  defend  her  life. 

Of  all  the  noble  men  who  responded  to  that  call  no  voice  rang 
out  with  more  clearness  and  power  than  that  of  OLIVER  P.  MOR- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.   MORTON. 


103 


TON,  the  young  governor  of  Indiana.  He  was  then  but  thirty- 
seven  years  of  age.  Self-made,  as  all  men  are  who  are  worth  the 
making,  he  had  risen  from  a  hard  life  of  narrow  conditions  by  fight 
ing  his  own  way,  thinking  his  own  thoughts,  and  uttering  them 
without  fear,  until  by  the  fortune  of  political  life  he  had  become 
the  chief  executive  of  his  State.  He  saw  at  once  and  declared  the 
terrible  significance  of  the  impending  struggle,  and  threw  his  whole 
weight  into  the  conflict.  His  State  and  my  own  marched  abreast 
in  generous  emulation.  But  he  was  surrounded  by  difficulties  and 
dangers  which  hardly  found  a  parallel  in  any  other  State.  With 
unconquerable  will  and  the  energy  of  a  Titan  he  encountered  and 
overcame  them  all;  and  keeping  Indiana  in  line  with  the  foremost, 
he  justly  earned  the  title  of  one  of  the  greatest  war  governors  of 
that  heroic  period. 

Thus  the  great  need  of  the  nation  called  forth  and  fixed  in  the 
enduring  colors  of  fame  those  high  qualities  which  thirty-seven 
years  of  private  life  had  been  preparing. 

To  learn  the  lesson  of  his  great  life,  let  us  recall  briefly  its  lead 
ing  characteristics. 

He  was  a  great  organizer.  He  knew  how  to  evoke  and  direct 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  people.  He  knew  how  to  combine  and  mar 
shal  his  forces,  political  or  military,  so  as  to  concentrate  them  all 
upon  a  single  object  and  inspire  them  with  his  own  ardor. 

I  have  often  compared  him  with  Stanton,  our  great  War  Secre 
tary,  whose  windows  at  the  War  Office  for  many  years  far  into  the 
night  shone  out,  "  like  battle-lanterns  lit,"  while  he  mustered  great 
armies  and  launched  them  into  the  tempest  of  war  and  "  organized 
victory."  In  the  whole  circle  of  the  States  no  organizer  stood 
nearer  to  him  in  character  and  qualities  and  friendship  than  OLIVER 
P.  MORTON. 


104  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    GARFIELD   ON   THE 

His  force  of  will  was  most  masterful.  It  was  not  mere  stub 
bornness  or  pride  of  opinion  which  weak  and  narrow  men  mistake 
for  firmness ;  but  it  was  that  stout-hearted  persistency  which,  hav 
ing  once  intelligently  chosen  an  object,  pursues  it  through  sunshine 
and  storm,  undaunted  by  difficulties  and  unterrified  by  danger. 

He  possessed  an  intellect  of  remarkable  clearness  and  force.  With 
keen  analysis  he  found  the  core  of  a  questson  and  worked  from  the 
center  outwards.  He  cared  little  for  the  mere  graces  of  speech ; 
but  few  men  have  been  so  greatly  endowed  with  the  power  of  clear 
statement  and  unassailable  argument.  The  path  of  his  thought  was 
straight — 

Like  that  of  the  swift  cannon-ball, 
Shattering  that  it  may  reach,  and  shattering  what  it  reaches. 

When  he  had  hit  the  mark  he  used  no  additional  words  and 
sought  for  no  decoration.  These  qualities,  joined  to  his  power  of 
thinking  quickly,  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  of  debaters  and 
every  year  increased  his  power. 

It  has  been  said  that  Senator  MORTON  was  a  partisan,  a  strong 
partisan,  and  this  is  true.  In  the  estimation  of  some  this  detracts 
from  his  fame.  That  evils  arise  from  extreme  partisanship  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  all  free  gov 
ernments  are  party  governments.  Our  great  Americans  have  been 
great  partisans.  Senator  MORTON  was  not  more  partisan  than 
Adams,  Jefferson,  Jackson,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Benton,  Marshall, 
Taney,  or  Chase.  Strong  men  must  have  strong  convictions,  and 
"one  man  with  a  belief  is  a  greater  power  than  a  thousand  that 
have  only  interests."  Partisanship  is  opinion  crystallized,  and 
party  organizations  are  the  scaffoldings  whereon  citizens  stand  while 
they  build  up  the  wall  of  their  national  temple.  Organizations 
may  change  or  dissolve,  but  when  parties  cease  to  exist  liberty  will 
perish. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.   MORTON.  105 

In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  the  memory  of  Governor  MORTON 
will  be  forever  cherished  and  honored  by  the  soldiers  of  my  State. 
They  fought  side  by  side  with  the  soldiers  of  Indiana,  and  on  a 
hundred  glorious  fields  his  name  was  the  battle-cry  of  the  noble 
regiments  which  he  had  organized  and  inspired  with  his  own  lofty 
spirit. 

To  the  nation  he  has  left  the  legacy  of  his  patriotism  and  the 
example  of  a  great  and  eventful  life. 


Address  of  Mr.  DUNNELL,  of  Minnesota. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  the  life  and  character  of  the  late  Senator  MORTON 
will  be  read  and  admired  by  generations  of  American  citizens  yet 
unborn.  The  moral  and  intellectual  qualities  which  his  public  ser 
vices  developed  and  made  conspicuous  were  such  as  all  the  noble 
dead  must  have  possessed  and  exercised.  Enduring  fame  must 
have  a  cause.  It  is  not  an  accident.  It  is  not  attained  by  a  mod 
erate  use  of  the  common  qualities  of  heart  or  brain,  but  must  be 
the  offspring  of  mental  or  moral  powers,  clearly  and  unmistakably 
great.  The  man  whose  name  shall  outlive  that  of  his  fellows  must 
surpass  them  in  character  or  deed  as  much  as  he  would  have  his 
name  go  beyond  theirs  on  its  way  to  coming  time. 

While  the  subject  of  our  eulogies  to-day  had  in  large  develop 
ment  not  a  few  of  the  rarest  traits  of  human  character,  I  shall  be 
content  to  call  attention  to  the  strength  of  his  convictions  and  his 
tenacity  of  purpose. 

His  convictions  were  so  strong  and  deep  that  they  banished  from 
him  every  element  of  moral  weakness.  He,  therefore,  spent  no 
time  in  doubt  or  in  a  discussion  of  measures  suggested  by  doubt. 
He  lost  no  force  by  the  intimations  of  mere  expediency.  The 


11 


106  ADDEESS   OF   ME.    DUNNELL,   ON   THE 

cause  which  he  espoused  became  a  part  of  his  very  being  and 
drove  from  him  every  vestige  of  fear.  His  convictions  made  him 
bold.  Luther  was  not  bolder  when  he  uttered  the  words  which  put 
his  name  upon  the  imperishable  scroll  of  fame. 

He  was  tenacious  of  purpose.  With  his  deep,  thorough  convic 
tions  he  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  The  exciting  scenes 
through  which  he  passed  between  1861  and  the  time  of  his  too 
early  death  furnished  abundant  occasions  for  a  display  of  the  traits 
of  character  to  which  I  have  referred.  The  great  Roman  poet 
could  describe  in  no  juster  words  the  immortal  Augustus,  than  to 
say  of  him: 

Justum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum, 
Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Non  vultus  instantis  tyranni, 
Solida  quatit  mente. 

These  words  give  a  reason  why  the  succeeding  ages  have  kept  the 
deeds  and  name  of  Augustus  safe  from  the  touch  of  time.  Not  less 
could  the  American  statesman,  whose  life  we  fittingly  eulogize  this 
day,  than  the  Roman  hero,  be  moved  from  his  fixed  purposes  by 
the  fierceness  of  citizens  commanding  wrong  courses  of  action  or  the 
presence  of  the  threatening  tyrant  or  traitor. 

It  is  not  strange  that  OLIVEE  P.  MOETON,  almost  in  a  day, 
passed  from  comparative  obscurity  into  a  well-merited  national 
renown,  when  as  governor  of  Indiana  he  at  once  displayed  his  pre 
eminent  fitness  to  meet  the  terrible  exigencies  of  the  hour.  The 
wicked  devices  of  his  personal  enemies  and  those  of  his  country 
only  the  more  perfectly  brought  into  immediate  play  the  rare  gifts 
of  head  and  heart  with  which  God  had  endowed  him.  It  cannot  be 
told  here  by  what  courage,  by  what  almost  superhuman  labors,  by 
what  consummate  use  of  means,  and  by  what  rare  wisdom  he  held 
his  State  in  the  orbit  of  loyalty  and  duty.  His  great  patriotism 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  107 

could  endure  no  limits  to  its  exercise  less  than  those  which  bounded 
the  entire  country.  He  could  not  hesitate  when  the  great  work 
was  upon  him.  History  will  not  let  slip  the  labors  of  Governor 
MORTON  during  the  period  of  war.  He  sought  out,  shaped,  and 
controlled  every  force.  He  was  the  State  itself.  In  and  through 
him  it  acted.  It  is  said  of  Henry  II : 

He  himself  was  always  the  center  of  all  power.  He  remembered  everything,  he 
thought  of  everything,  he  cared  for  everything.  Nothing  escaped  his  eye  and  his 
hand. 

These  words  in  English  history  wrill  find  their  place  in  American 
history  when  the  life  of  Governor  MORTON  shall  be  written.  An 
official  integrity,  rendered  all  the  more  brilliant  by  a  futile  attempt 
to  impeach  it,  added  its  luster  to  the  steady,  unyielding  tenacity 
with  which  he  guided  his  State  into  the  path  of  supreme  devotion 
to  the  Republic.  He  so  discharged  the  vast  responsibilities  that  the 
nation  applauded,  and  when  peace  came  the  State  gave  him  a  seat 
in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  nation. 

His  services  in  the  Senate  need  no  formal  recital  of  incidents. 
From  the  first  he  took  and  held  a  place  among  the  ablest  in  that 
distinguished  body.  No  important  measure  was  considered  there, 
during  his  term  of  service,  which  he  did  not  discuss  and  elucidate. 
The  clearness  of  his  style  and  the  earnestness  with  which  he  en 
forced  the  conclusions  of  his  logic  always  gave  him  the  attention 
of  the  Senate.  The  great  occasion  found  him  ready  and  equal  to 
its  demands.  His  power  in  debate  was  due,  in  no  small  degree,  to 
the  unmistakable  sincerity  and  enthusiasm  with  which  he  yielded 
to  and  followed  his  convictions.  He  spoke  from  a  heart  filled  with 
belief.  His  eloquence  was  born  in  the  soul,  and  hence  was  real, 
true  eloquence.  He  was  not  content  simply  to  meet  the  questions 
which  came  before  the  Senate  in  the  ordinary  course  of  business, — he 


108  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    DUNNELL   ON   THE 

indicated  measures  which  the  Government  would  need  in  coming 
periods  of  her  life.  He  was  the  sagacious  statesman. 

Senator  MORTON  was  eminent  for  his  devotion  to  the  republican 
party.  He  held  to  it  as  unfalteringly  as  he  did  to  the  cause  of  the 
Union  itself.  He  believed  in  its  principles,  and  deemed  their  tri 
umph  essential  to  the  highest  weal  of  the  country.  For  their  tri 
umph  his  voice  was  heard  by  millions  of  his  countrymen.  It  was 
raised  in  dignified  argument.  Speaking  with  him  was  but  the 
logical  arrangement  of  facts  and  the  enforcement  of  their  teachings. 
This  was  done  with  the  seriousness  which  honest  and  deeply  cher 
ished  convictions  never  fail  to  produce.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
he  was  an  effective  speaker,  that  the  people  delighted  to  hear  him, 
that  they  honored  the  man  who  honored  them  by  the  very  manner 
in  which  he  addressed  them.  His  campaign  speeches  were  a  mas 
terly  statement  of  the  issues  involved  in  the  canvass.  No  man  in 
the  party  surpassed  him  in  this  respect.  His  opening  speeches,  as 
they  were  often  denominated,  were  eagerly  looked  for.  They  be 
came  texts  for  party  speakers  in  every  State  in  the  Union.  Their 
effect  upon  the  public  mind  was  marvelous,  and  therein  attested  the 
genius  of  their  author. 

But,  sir,  how  vain  the  effort  to  recount  the  labors  and  the  public 
achievements  of  the  lamented  Senator.  Words  fail  us.  We  can 
but  wonder  that  a  life  so  soon  ended  should  bear  such  rich,  abundant 
fruit.  We  mourn  the  dead,  yet  rejoice  that  this  resplendent  life 
was  given  to  the  nation. 

We  live  in  deeds,  not  years;  in  thoughts,  not  breaths; 
In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
******          He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  109 


Address  of  Mr.  WILLIAMS,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  when  the  wife  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  at  the 
bedside  of  her  dead  husband,  exclaimed:  "Oh,  my  boys!"  a 
nation  listened,  and  a  nation  realized  how  strong  the  chords  that 
had  been  broken,  how  great  the  light  that  had  gone  out. 

Real  greatness  and  true  worth  achieve  their  loftiest  triumphs 
and  their  best  results  when,  while  fighting  the  battles  of  a  nation, 
they  intrench  themselves  deeper  and  stronger  in  the  affections  of 
wife  and  children,  neighbor  and  friend. 

Such  a  man  I  think  was  OLIVER  P.  MORTON.  If  he  was  great 
in  head,  he  was  great  also  in  heart.  He  ever  took  the  side  of 
the  weaker  party.  He  was  the  friend  of  the  friendless  and  the 
champion  of  the  oppressed.  Their  wrongs  were  his  wrong;  their 
griefs  were  his  grief;  and  if  when  his  sense  of  justice  was  touched 
and  all  his  energies  were  roused,  he  fought  with  the  fierceness 
and  courage  of  the  lion,  so  when  the  contest  was  over  he  forgave 
with  the  simplicity  and  tenderness  of  a  child. 

He  only  wanted  to  know  that  the  settlement,  whatever  it  might 
be,  was  genuine  and  sincere.  He  hated  all  shams  and  pretenses. 
He  knew  nothing  of  circumlocution;  he  went  straight  to  the 
question  before  him,  and  as  his  own  words  sped  like  bullets  to 
the  mark,  so  fine  phrases  and  the  tricks  of  speech  had  no  charm 
for  him  except  as  they  stood  for  the  very  truth  of  the  matter 
in  question.  He  was  no  temporizer. 

He  had  no  heart  to  build  where  he  felt  there  was  a  flaw  in 
the  foundation.  He  would  sooner  dig  to  the  bottom  and  replace 
all  rotten  timbers  with  sound  material  than  rely  on  the  props  and 
stays  of  expedients  to  give  strength  to  the  superstructure. 

In  his  earnestness  of  purpose  and  in  the  fire  and  heat  of  debate 


110  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    WILLIAMS   ON   THE 

he  was  not  always  the  most  choice  in  his  use  of  language,  but  no 
man,  either  friend  or  foe,  ever  mistook  its  honest  meaning. 

He  was  a  true  man.  He  shirked  no  responsibility  and  shunned 
no  duty,  but  whether  in  the  wildest  hour  of  rebellion  he  struggled 
for  the  honor  and  fidelity  of  his  native  State  or  for  the  integrity  and 
glory  of  the  entire  Union,  his  sledge-hammer  blows  brought  down 
upon  the  great  anvil  of  public  opinion  rang  out  the  notes  to  which 
a  patriotic  land  responded. 

For  such  a  man  there  was  and  could  be  no  rest. 

We  are  told  that  he  loved  his  home  and  all  the  joys  of  domestic 
peace,  but  his  public  life  was  a  life  of  storm  and  battle.  It  could 
not  well  be  otherwise;  for  while  in  all  the  land  there  was  one 
human  being,  even  one  of  the  humblest  of  God's  creatures,  denied 
a  single  constitutional  right,  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  could  not  and 
would  not  be  peaceable.  Whatever  others  might  say  or  do,  when 
he  believed  that  scores  and  hundred  of  American  citizens  were 
being  slaughtered  in  cold  blood  for  the  bare  assertion  of  their 
political  rights,  he  never  flinched  from  saying  so  either  from  the 
rostrum,  before  the  people,  or  from  his  seat  in  the  Senate  in  the 
presence  of  all  his  peers. 

For  such  a  man,  I  repeat,  there  was  and  there  could  be  no  peace ; 
and  had  his  life  been  spared  as  long  as  some  of  us  might  have 
hoped,  it  would  have  been  all  the  same.  The  contest  would  have 
gone  on;  he  would  have  been  assailed,  abused,  and  vilified  while 
living;  he  would  have  been  loved,  honored,  and  revered  when  dead. 

Mr.  Speaker,  these  are  the  penalties  and  these  the  rewards  which 
God  himself  has  attached  to  the  conscientious  performance  of  public 
duty.  Mr.  MORTON  was  not  only  a  courageous  but  he  was  an  honest 
man.  His  lot  was  cast  in  the  stormiest  period  of  the  Republic.  For 
seventeen  years  he  stood  in  the  full  glare  of  opportunity.  As  gov- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  Ill 

ernor  of  Indiana  he  disbursed  large  sums  of  the  public  money ;  he 
had  patronage  to  bestow.  In  the  Senate  he  frequently  became  the 
champion  of  measures  involving  vast  property  interests.  The  dis 
bursement  of  millions  of  money  might  turn  upon  his  voice  or  vote,  and 
yet  he  died  leaving  a  competence  only  such  as  a  frugal  life  could  gather. 

His  style  of  living  was  the  most  unpretentious.  It  has  been  said  of 
him  that  at  one  time,  when  fashion  spread  her  crimson  sails  and  the 
sea  of  gayety  rolled  unchecked  through  this  capital,  Mr.  MORTON'S 
coachman  donned  the  livery  of  the  time,  and  the  Senator  observing 
this,  without  ostentation  of  any  kind  and  without  attempting  in  the 
slighest  degree  to  dictate  as  to  the  tastes  or  customs  of  others,  simply 
intimated  to  his  coachman  that  the  plain  garb  of  the  American  citi 
zen  would  do  for  him  and  would  have  to  do  for  the  driver  of  his 
cab;  and  we  all  remember  that  primitive  vehicle  in  which,  from 
necessity,  he  rode  from  the  Capitol  to  his  lodgings. 

These  are  slight  matters,  perhaps  scarcely  worth  the  mentioning; 
and  yet,  in  the  language  of  the  immortal  Lincoln,  "  the  plain  people 
will  understand  them." 

I  well  remember  an  incident  which  occurred  during  'the  last 
Congress.  A  committee  of  which  I  chanced  to  be  a  member  was 
charged  with  certain  investigations.  A  witness  had  mentioned  the 
name  of  Mr.  MORTON  in  connection  with  a  proposed  improper  fee. 
It  was  an  obscure  insinuation  and  in  no  wise  rose  to  the  dignity  of 
a  charge.  The  testimony  was  printed  in  an  evening  paper.  The 
next  morning,  no  sooner  were  our  doors  opened  than  the  rattle  of 
the  Senator's  canes  was  heard  on  the  marble  stairway  leading  to 
the  committee-room ;  and  the  manner  in  which  he  confronted  his 
accuser  and  the  celerity  with  which  the  charge  was  withdrawn  con 
vinced  all  who  witneased  the  scene  that  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  was 
able  and  ready  to  defend  his  honor  whenever  assailed. 


112  ADDEESS  OF   MR.   WILLIAMS  ON   THE 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  not  on  the  list  of  his  eulogists  because  I  can 
pretend  to  have  enjoyed  his  intimate  acquaintance.  And  yet  at 
one  time  certain  minor  committee  duties  threw  me  frequently  in  his 
society,  and  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  hear  him  discuss  in  the 
unreserve  of  social  intercourse  some  of  the  most  important  questions 
of  the  day.  I  think  whoever  heard  him  at  such  times  could  not 
fail  to  be  convinced  that  central  facts  and  fundamental  ideas  were 
the  guiding-star  of  his  life. 

I  remember  going  to  him  at  one  time  in  the  Senate  and  making 
the  inquiry  when  he  expected  to  complete  a  speech  which  he  had 
commenced  upon  Mississippi  affairs.  "With  an  air  of  gravity 
amounting  almost  to  sadness  he  replied,  "I  am  not  sure  that  I 
shall  ever  complete  it."  He  then  went  on  to  say  that  his  only 
object  in  making  it  was  to  get  certain  facts  before  the  country,  but 
that,  under  the  policy  of  journalism  then  in  vogue,  while  whole 
columns  and  pages  of  the  remarks  of  opponents  were  given  to  the 
public,  of  which  he  did  not  complain,  scarcely  a  dozen  lines  of 
these  facts  were  allowed  to  appear.  And  he  added,  with  an  em 
phasis  which  I  shall  never  forget: 

The  truth  is,  that  congressional  documents  and  reports  are  fast  becoming  the 
mere  tombs  of  facts  which  if  known  in  detail  would  startle  the  country  with 
horror. 

That  speech  was  never  completed.  It  remains  as  ,he  left  it,  a 
specimen  of  his  unfinished  work. 

And,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  sometimes  fear  the  time  will  yet  come  in 
this  country — which  may  God  in  his  mercy  avert — when  that 
speech,  standing  like  a  broken  column,  may  prove  a  monumental 
reminder  to  the  American  people  that  one  of  their  gravest  mistakes 
was  that  at  one  of  the  most  critical  periods  of  their  history  they 
neglected  to  take  the  advice  and  counsel  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON. 

It  has  sometimes  been  charged  that  in  his  public  acts  he  was 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON. 


113 


moved  only  by  a  spirit  of  hatred.  I  do  not  think  the  man  ever 
knew  the  feeling  of  hate,  except  that  hatred  which  he  felt  for  all 
forms  of  wrong  and  injustice.  And  I  think  the  day  is  rapidly 
approaching  when  this  will  be  universally  conceded,  and  when 
none  will  be  more  ready  to  acknowledge  it  than  those  who  are  his 
bitterest,  his  ablest,  and  therefore  most  generous  opponents.  He 
simply  followed  his  convictions  of  duty  wherever  they  led  him. 

Could  he  rise  from  the  grave  to-day  to  pronounce  his  own  eulogy, 
I  doubt  if  he  could  do  it  in  fitter  language  than  when  he  said  of 
Henry  Wilson: 

His  great  strength  was  in  his  convictions.  He  was  a  man  of  ideas,  and  relied 
upon  ideas  for  success.  He  was  a  man  of  courage.  He  dared  to  follow  his  convic 
tions  wherever  they  led  him. 

So  with  Mr.  MORTON.  He  was  full  of  convictions  and  fearfully 
in  earnest.  He  seldom  jested  and  never  trifled.  To  him  the  con 
flicts  of  life  were  fraught  with  awful  reality,  and  such  of  them  as 
fell  to  his  lot  were  prosecuted  with  the  skill  of  a  master.  But 
while  he  marshaled  all  his  means  and  fought  like  a  Hercules  for 
success  he  never  sacrificed  the  fidelity  of  a  friend  to  gain  the  favor 
of  an  enemy. 

Mr.  Speaker,  when  the  scaffolding  falls  away  the  structure  reveals 
itself  in  its  true  outline  and  proportions.  So  when  the  mists  and 
circumstances  of  the  present  shall  have  passed,  impartial  judgment 
will  assign  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  his  proper  place  in  history.  I  do 
not  propose  to  attempt  that  here  to-day ;  but  the  work  for  which 
Greeley  wrought,  which  Sumner  prosecuted,  which  MORTON  pushed 
up  to  the  very  shore-line  of  death,  will  never  be  forgotten  while 
American  history  is  written  or  read. 

And  as  error  must  give  way  to  truth,  force  to  reason,  wrong  to 
right,  injustice  to  justice,  and  the  equality  of  law  ultimately  prevail 
over  all  alike,  so  do  I  believe  that  the  names  of  Giddings  and  Gree- 


15 


114  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    HAZELTON  ON  THE 

ley,  Seward  and  Sumner,  Chase  and  Stevens,  Lincoln  and  Wilson, 
will  stand  all  the  tests  of  the  future  and  grow  brighter  and  brighter 
as  time  rolls  on. 

Last,  but  not  least,  in  this  list  of  departed  statesmen  stands  the 
name  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON. 

Broken  in  health,  stricken  in  body,  but  unconquered  and  uncon 
querable  in  spirit,  he  stood  guard  to  the  last  over  the  precious  lega 
cies  left  to  his  care. 

But  he,  too,  is  numbered  with  the  dead.  His  voice  is  silent  and 
he  rests  at  last  in  the  soil  of  his  native  State.  The  snows  of  winter 
mantle  his  grave  and  the  winds  that  sweep  the  broad  prairies  of 
Indiana  sing  a  sad  requiem  around  his  tomb.  His  name  will  be  cut 
in  brass,  in  bronze,  and  in  marble;  but,  Mr.  Speaker,  when  brass 
and  bronze  shall  have  corroded  and  crumbled,  when  marble  shall 
have  disintegrated  and  gone  to  ashes,  then,  as  season  follows  season, 
as  winter  releases  its  grasp  and  flowers  bloom  upon  his  grave,  so  shall 
the  memory  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  ever  spring  fresh  and  green 
and  beautiful  in  the  grateful  hearts  of  a  loving  people. 


Address  of  Mr.  HAZELTON,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  MORTON  is  dead,  and  the  American  Congress 
which  he  honored  in  his  life  pauses  to-day  to  pay  becoming  rever 
ence  to  his  memory.  They  buried  him  at  the  capital  of  his  native 
State  amid  the  farewells,  the  tears,  and  the  loves  of  kindred  and 
friends,  and  now  the  nation  bends  down  to  cast  the  garlands  of  its 
respect  and  love  upon  his  bier  as  it  passes  by. 

He  was  the  child  of  the  Republic  and  his  life-work  stands  among 
the  grandest  achievements  of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  is  a 
marked  example  in  our  history  of  the  beauty  and  the  value  of  free 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  OLIVER   P.   MORTON.  115 

institutions  in  his  development  from  the  ranks  of  the  people,  up 
through  State  lines  to  the  horizon  of  national  politics  and  states 
manship  broadened  to  the  utmost  limits  of  the  Republic. 
Carlyle  said : 

He  is  most  a  king  who  makes  the  strongest  impression  on  the  age  In  which  he 
lives  though  his  scepter  be  a  walking-stick. 

In  American  polity  he  is  most  a  statesman  who  makes  the  strong 
est  impression  on  the  age  in  which  he  lives  for  the  good  of  his  race 
and  for  human  progress,  and  of  such  was  OLIVER  P.  MORTON.  The 
present  and  the  future  will  see  him,  as  in  the  hour  of  the  nation's 
peril,  as  the  great  war  governor  of  Indiana  he  organized  victory 
against  a  gigantic  opposition  and  replenished  the  exhausted  exchequer 
of  his  State  upon  his  own  honor ;  will  see  him  as  he  stood  by  the  tot 
tering  pillars  of  the  American  Union  to  uphold  and  maintain  them 
with  his  wisdom  and  his  strength ;  will  see  him  as  he  devoted  his 
great  energies,  his  lofty  patriotism,  his  broad  and  practical  states 
manship,  the  best  labor  of  his  life,  and  in  the  end  life  itself,  to  make 
us  a  freer  and  a  better  people. 

Looking  upon  the  face  of  Daniel  Webster  as  he  lay  in  his  coffin  by 
the  sea,  a  loving  neighbor  remarked :  "  The  world  will  be  lonesome, 
Mr.  Webster,  now  you  are  gone;"  and  so  I  thought  when  MORTON 
died,  as  I  passed  through  the  "long-drawn  aisles"  of  the  Capitol 
to  his  place  in  the  Senate ;  to  the  chair  craped  with  mourning;  to  the 
desk  adorned  by  some  loving  hand  with  sweet  flowers  of  condolence. 
It  was  the  vacant  chair  at  the  nation's  fireside,  and  I  thought  how 
lost  the  Senate,  the  party,  the  nation,  the  cause  of  human  rights 
without  him.  Here  in  the  Senate  he  took  his  stand  for  all  that  is 
valuable  in  human  government ;  from  this  point  radiates  the  light  of 
his  great  work  out  into  the  world  and  across  the  centuries.  Here 
his  immortal  hand  help  fashion  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution, 


116  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    HAZELTON   ON   THE 

which  are  the  jewels  of  the  world's  liberty,  and  here  he  proclaimed 
the  doctrine  higher  than  all  others,  the  doctrine  of  American  life,  of 
American  vitality,  of  American  perpetuity,  of  American  duty ;  that 
the  sovereignty  of  this  nation,  represented  by  its  flag  on  land  and  sea, 
the  sovereign  power  of  the  nation,  was  pledged  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  rights  of  all  its  citizens,  high  and  low,  for  all  time  on  American 
soil ;  and  for  the  rights  and  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  maintain 
and  enforce  it  he  was  as 

Constant  as  the  northern  star, 
Of  whose  true-flxed  and  resting  quality 
There  is  no  fellow  in  the  firmament. 

Upon  the  question  of  equality  before  the  law,  in  its  declaration  and 
in  its  maintenance  for  ten  years  in  our  history  he  stands  peerless. 

He  loved  power,  but  he  never  would  have  exercised  it  except  to 
strengthen  the  grounds  of  liberty  among  men.  He  was  ambitious, 
but  he  never  would  have  exercised  or  used  his  ambition  beyond  the 
legitimate  purposes  of  maintaining  the  liberty  of  man.  He  was 
honest ;  amid  all  the  clouds  of  darkness  that  fell  down  upon  that 
period  of  our  history,  when  speculation  was  rife,  when  the  fierce 
race  for  wealth  had  no  scruple,  "he  kept  the  whiteness  of  his  soul." 

Mr.  Speaker,  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  will  be  seen  and  heard  in  the 
councils  of  this  nation  no  more  forever.  He  has  gone  down  to  rest 
with  the  distinguished  dead  of  the  Republic,  with  her  heroes  and 
statesmen,  with  the  immortal  Douglas  and  Lincoln  and  Seward 
and  Sumner ;  but  his  name  and  memory,  like  theirs  and  like  the 
great  deeds  of  American  history,  a  part  of  which  he  was,  will  live 
until  the  evening  stars  shall  fade  away.  There  shall  be  but  few 
prouder  monuments  in  all  America  than  that  inscribed  with  his 
name  and  sacred  to  his  memory.  The  pilgrim  and  lover  of  liberty 
"in  the  far  ages  yet  to  be  shall  come  to  kneel  beside  his  grave  and 
hail  him  prophet  of  the  free." 


LIFE    AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER    P.    MORTON.  117 


Address  of  Mr.  CALKINS,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  the  last  words  of  Senator  MORTON  deserve  to  be 
perpetuated  in  these  memorial  exercises.  From  the  verge  of  the 
grave,  in  the  unequal  contest  with  the  "grim  monster,"  with  husky 
voice  he  cried  out  "I  am  worn  out;  I  am  dying,"  and  the  next 
instant  his  spirit  unfettered  took  its  flight  to  realms  unknown. 

I  propose  to  address  myself  to  a  few  of  the  prominent  char 
acteristics  of  Senator  MORTON  as  they  impressed  me  in  a  long 
acquaintance  with  him,  though  not  as  intimate  as  that  of  many 
others  who  have  addressed  the  House  upon  this  occasion.  In  the 
nature  of  things  I  could  not  be  on  as  intimate  relations  with  him 
as  many  others  nearer  his  age  and  who  commenced  political  life 
about  the  time  he  did. 

He  entered  prominently  into  politics  while  I  was  yet  a  boy,  and 
from  the  beginning  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  republican  party 
in  my  State  and  maintained  it  to  the  end.  If  the  party  in  the 
nation  during  the  last  decacle  has  had  a  leader  he  has  approached 
nearer  to  that  place  than  any  other  man  in  its  ranks, — I  mean  a 
leadership  in  the  sense  of  marking  out  and  shaping  national  issues, 
announcing  principles  around  and  upon  which  the  great  body  of  the 
party  crystallized,  in  which  they  believed,  and  for  which  they  went 
out  to  do  battle  for  their  party. 

Coming  to  the  political  front,  as  he  did,  at  a  time  when  great 
upheavals  in  public  sentiment  were  being  constantly  cast  to  the 
surface  and  when  political  strife  had  fanned  the  flames  of  partisan 
ship  into  a  consuming  fire,  one  less  resolute,  situated  and  sur 
rounded  as  he  was,  would  have  been  utterly  crushed  and  over 
whelmed.  In  my  State  the  difference  in  the  numerical  strength  of 


118  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    CALKINS   ON   THE 

the  two  great  parties  has  always  been  small,  and  it  has  always 
required  the  best  generalship  to  marshal  the  entire  forces  of  both 
parties.  To  this  work,  as  a  natural  leader,  Senator  MORTON  was 
eminently  fitted  and  qualified. 

In  1856  his  party,  then  in  its  infancy,  nominated  him  as  its  stand 
ard-bearer  at  the  head  of  the  ticket;  although  at  that  time  he  was 
just  entering  politics  and  was  comparatively  a  young  man.  His  de 
feat  made  him  stronger  with  the  people  than  he  was  before,  and  like 
Lincoln's  defeat  in  the  great  and  ever  memorable  canvass  between 
him  and  Douglas  in  1858,  in  Illinois,  the  record  he  made  brought 
him  more  prominently  before  the  people  and  they  regarded  him  as 
a  leader  and  as  a  statesman. 

In  1860  he  accepted  the  second  place  on  the  republican  ticket  with 
ex-Senator  Lane  at  its  head.  The  republicans  of  the  State  at  that 
time — as  well  they  might — congratulated  themselves  that  they  had 
combined  the  elements  of  popularity  and  strength  in  the  choice  thus 
made.  All  who  have  ever  listened  to  Senator  Lane  will  bear  me 
witness  that  he  had  few  equals  as  a  popular  orator  and  that  few 
men  could  sway  the  masses  as  he  did.'  Following  close  upon  the 
magnetism  of  this  popular  orator,  Senator  MORTON  made  his  ap 
pearance  upon  the  stump  in  that  canvass,  and  with  his  clear-cut, 
crisp  sentences  and  terse  logic  drove  conviction  deep  into  the  hearts 
of  all  who  heard  him.  The  success  of  the  republican  party  at  that 
election  resulted  in  calling  Governor  Lane  to  the  United  States 
Senate  and  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  to  the  gubernatorial  chair  of  the 
State. 

I  shall  not  pass  in  review  his  many  acts  while  governor  from 
1861  to  1864,  except  to  refer  to  a  few  occasional  and  exceptional 
instances,  which  serve  to  bring  out  in  strong  light  the  remarkable 
gifts  of  leadership  and  ability  which  he  possessed. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  119 

Among  the  first  acts  of  Governor  MORTON,  after  he  became  act 
ing  governor  of  the  State,  which  I  now  recollect,  was  his  famous 
speech  at  Indianapolis  upon  the  duty  of  each  of  the  States  then  not 
in  rebellion  to  furnish  troops  and  supplies  for  maintaining  the 
National  Union.  I  remember  how  his  sentences  went  through  the 
press  of  the  State  and  cemented  all  persons,  irrespective  of  party, 
who  loved  the  Union  and  desired  to  see  it  perpetuated.  I  will  not 
at  this  time  quote  from  his  speech,  for  it  is  familiar  to  all.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  from  that  time  every  man  in  Indiana  knew  what 
would  be  the  policy  and  course  of  its  governor  in  the  suppression 
of  the  rebellion,  then  in  its  incipiency.  It  was  a  masterly  eifort. 
It  was  quoted  not  only  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
State,  but  all  over  the  North.  It  had  the  effect  on  those  who  were 
wavering  of  deciding  them.  It  combined  the  Union  sentiment  of 
the  two  great  political  parties  which  had  just  before  then  been  fighting 
for  political  mastery,  and  thenceforward  in  the  State  there  was  built 
up  a  patriotic  sentiment  second  to  none  in  the  Union.  Following 
close  upon  this  he  commenced  the  organization  of  troops  in  response 
to  President  Lincoln's  call,  and  thenceforward  was  among  the  first 
governors  to  respond  to  each  successive  call. 

During  his  administration  Indiana  furnished  over  two  hundred 
thousand  soldiers.  This  included  some  re-enlistments,  but  it  does 
not  include  the  re-enlistment  of  veteran  organizations. 

The  raising  and  equipment  of  these  troops  was  a  Herculean  task, 
and  it  was  often  remarked  during  and  since  the  war  that  Governor 
MORTON'S  efforts  for  the  Indiana  troops  seemed  almost  super 
human,  and  his  personal  presence  among  them  did  more  to  cement 
and  encourage  them  in  their  perilous  hours  than  any  other  act  per 
formed  by  any  man  during  the  war.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
he  personally  bade  each  regiment  that  left  the  State  "good-bye," 


120  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    CALKINS   ON   THE 

giving  them  words  of  cheer  and  encouragement,  and,  with  •  rare 
exceptions,  was  present  to  welcome  them  back  when  they  returned 
worn  and  scarred  with  their  laurels  at  the  close  of  the  conflict.  He 
never  forgot  them  nor  ceased  his  ministrations  while  they  were  in 
the  field.  After  the  bloody  engagement  at  Fort  Donelson,  I  well 
remember  seeing  him  arrive  on  the  first  boat  that  ascended  the 
river  with  supplies  and  medicines  for  the  wounded,  accompanied 
by  his  staif  of  volunteer  physicians,  to  personally  look  after  the 
wants  of  the  survivors.  After  every  battle  where  Indiana  soldiers 
fought  he  was  among  the  first — if  not  the  first — to  reach  the  field 
with  supplies  and  necessaries,  and  to  minister  to  the  wants  and 
comforts  of  those  who  survived;  and  I  cannot  describe  more 
eloquently  his  devotion  to  them  than  to  quote  from  an  Indiana 
wounded  soldier  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  when  he  said: 


I  saw  the  old  governor  reach  out  and  shake  hands  with  us,  and  then  saw  the 
tears  start  out  of  his  eyes,  as  he  saw  the  wounded  and  heard  their  groans.  Since 
then  I  have  appreciated  his  love  for  us. 


His  heart  was  as  tender  as  a  child's,  and  there  were  but  few  men 
who  did  not  possess  the  power  to  resist  appeals  in  a  greater  degree 
than  Senator  MORTON. 

The  veteran  soldiery  were  his  fast  friends.  In  all  political  con 
tests  he  rallied  them  nearly  as  one  man.  They  loved  him  and 
loved  to  do  him  honor ;  and  I  predict  that  the  recent  call  made  on 
the  veteran  soldiery  of  Indiana  for  volunteer  contributions  to  erect 
to  his  memory  a  statue  will  be  responded  to  in  the  most  speedy 
manner;  that  they  will  erect  to  him  a  monument  fitting  and  fitted 
to  perpetuate  his  name  through  all  time  to  come ;  and  when  this 
monument  is  completed,  as  it  soon  will  be,  if  I  were  allowed  to 
suggest  an  appropriate  inscription,  I  would  have  cut  upon  it  the 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  121 

simple  but  eloquent  words  "OLIVER  P.  MORTON,  The  Soldier's 
Friend." 

Another  prominent  characteristic  which  Governor  MORTON  pos 
sessed  in  an  eminent  degree  was  his  trenchant  manner  of  expression. 
It  would  seem  that  he  culled  from  the  list  of  words  the  strongest 

O 

and  most  intense,  and  when  formed  into  his  epigrammatic  sentences 
they  expressed  in  the  clearest  manner  exactly  what  he  meant  to 
say.  He  was  not  a  diplomatist,  for  he  never  made  use  of  language 
for  the  purpose  of  concealing  his  ideas.  After  he  had  expressed 
himself,  the  world  knew  exactly  what  he  meant.  Coupled  with 
this  great  power  of  expression  was  a  natural  gift  of  reasoning.  I 
have  rarely  met  a  man  who  possessed  pre-eminently  the  power  of 
reasoning  to  such  a  degree  as  did  Senator  MORTON.  When  he 
turned  his  mind  on  any  given  subject  and  gave  the  result  to  the 
world  there  was  little  left  to  be  said  on  either  side. 

In  debate  it  mattered  not  how  many  were  opposed  to  him  or 
Avho  were  his  adversaries.  Numbers  or  ability  never  cowed  him ; 
and  there  were  few  that  encountered  him  that  were  not  "shorn  of 
their  strength."  When  he  exposed  fallacy,  plausibility  melted 
before  his  sledge-hammer  blows.  When  he  attacked  deception,  his 
shafts  rent  asunder  the  garb  in  which  it  was  cloaked.  When  he 
dealt  in  invective,  his  foes  withered  before  his  terse  sentences. 

On  all  public  questions  Senator  MORTON  had  decided  convic 
tions.  He  never  temporized  or  apologized  for  his  views.  He 
rarely  engaged  in  personal  colloquy,  and  never  indulged  in  person 
alities.  He  was  a  leader  in  public  sentiment,  and  molded  the 
opinions  of  others  to  his  own.  He  was  original  and  aggressive, 
bold,  fearless,  and_  intrepid.  In  the  workings  of  his  face  could  be 
traced  the  deep  cogitations  of  his  mind.  When  he  uttered  a  sen 
tence  it  was  big  with  meaning  and  burdened  with  a  world  of 


16 


122  ADDRESS   OF   MB.    CALKINS   ON   THE 

thought.  He  constantly  impressed  you  with  the  immense  reserve 
power  which  lay  partially  hidden  behind  the  massive  stern  brow 
and  fixed  determined  face. 

In  these  days  of  sensationalism  the  magic  of  oratory  over  the 
masses  in  a  marked  degree  has  vanished.  I  remember  with  pride 
some  of  the  names  of  Indiana's  orators.  The  names  of  Hannegan, 
Marshall,  Dunn,  Wilson,  and  Willard,  with  their  eloquence  and 
magnetism,  still  burnish  and  brighten  the  pages  of  the  history  of 
my  State.  But  Senator  MORTON  possessed  neither  magnetism  nor 
eloquence,  and  yet  his  hearers  hung  upon  his  words  like  a  "bee 
upon  the  flower;"  for  hours  they  would  stand  riveted  to  his  utter 
ances,  while  he  never  seasoned  his  speech  with  an  anecdote  or 
embellished  it  with  a  burst  of  eloquence.  It  was  his  plain,  simple 
manner  of  statement  which  held  them  fast.  It  was  that  power 
which  was  referred  to  by  the  apostle  when  he  said  "  Come,  let  us 
reason  together." 

As  I  have  said,  Senator  MORTON  lacked  personal  magnetism.  He 
had  little  imagery  in  his  composition.  He  made  use  of  no  poetry  or 
lofty  flights  of  eloquence.  "Sweet  soothing  words"  were  not  his. 
Electrical  sparks  never  passed  between  him  and  his  auditors.  But 
combined  with  his  simple  and  pure  statement  of  fact  he  had  a  vein 
of  pathos  which  reached  every  heart.  In  his  political  discussions  I 
have  often  noted  how  his  face  lighted  up  with  a  strange  fascination, 
and  his  sledge-hammer  gesticulation  exactly  fitted  the  flaming  face. 
His  voice  was  distinct,  not  overanimated,  but  searching.  The  three 
combined  seemed  exactly  fitted  for  each  other  and  blended  together 
in  perfect  harmony.  Mr.  Speaker,  the  eloquence,  magnetism,  and 
enchantment  of  popular  orators  may  fade  and  be  forgotten,  but  the 
remarkable  canvasses  and  career  and  the  more  remarkable  speeches 
of  Senator  MORTON  will  never  be  effaced. 


LIFE   AND   CHAEACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  123 

In  1864  Mr.  MORTON  was  elected  governor  of  the  State  of  Indiana. 
He  was  shortly  afterward,  in  1867,  elected  to  the  United  States  Sen 
ate,  in  which  body  he  has  been  a  continuous  member  up  to  the  time 
of  his  death,  making  a  public  career  in  all  of  nearly  twenty  years. 
When  he  entered  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  he  found  there  the 
brightest  talent  of  the  land.  He  had  no  ordinary  minds  to  grapple 
with.  Many  of  his  associates  will  justly  take  rank  with  the  greatest 
of  American  statesmen;  but  in  the  midst  of  this  constellation  Gov 
ernor  MORTON  at  once  took  equal  rank,  and  there  were  none,  from 
the  day  he  entered  the  Senate  to  the  day  of  his  death,  who  outshone 
him.  As  was  truthfully  remarked  by  his  present  successor  in  the 
Senate, "  he  was  the  ablest  political  leader  this  country  ever  produced ." 
Contrast  at  this  day  would  be  objectionable,  but  I  may  safely  say 
without  giving  offense  to  any  that  in  the  years  that  are  to  come,  when 
the  historian  shall  search  the  pages  and  records  of  that  body,  his  pen 
will  write  OLIVER  P.  MORTON  down  as  a  man  of  the  strongest  mind, 
the  greatest  genius,  more  originality,  and  the  largest  individuality  of 
any  member  that  occupied  a  seat  in  the  Senate  with  him.  The  con 
stitutional  lawyer  in  ages  to  come  will  read  with  interest  his  inter 
pretations  of  that  instrument;  his  utterances  will  be  quoted  when 
all  of  us  have  passed  away. 

Other  nations  have  preserved  the  words  of  wisdom  uttered  by  their 
great  statesmen.  So  have  we.  We  are  familiar  with  the  grand  utter 
ances  of  Adams,  Jefferson,  Calhoun,  Webster,  Clay,  Benton,  Doug 
las,  Seward,  and  Simmer;  but  none  of  these  will  hold  a  greater 
place  in  the  history  of  this  nation  than  will  OLIVER  P.  MORTON. 
Strewn  along  on  every  page  is  the  impress  of  his  giant  intellect;  in 
grafted  in  the  organic  law  of  our  land  is  the  offspring  of  his  mighty 
brain,  and  printed  upon  our  statute  books  are  the  emanations  of  his 
lofty  thought. 


124  ADDRESS  OF  MB.   CALKINS  ON  THE 

As  others  have  been  criticised,  so  has  he.  As  we  yet  criticise  them 
and  their  measures,  so  will  future  generations  criticise  those  of  Mr. 
MORTON  ;  but  all  will  agree  that  in  his  originality  and  clearness  of 
thought  ho  had  few  equals. 

Since  the  adjournment  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  death  has 
stricken  down  two  American  Senators  who  were  in  the  flood-tide  of 
their  greatness.  The  great  State  of  Missouri  has  lost  her  gifted  son, 
Senator  BOGY,  and,  like  her  sister  State,  is  now  wearing  the  "sables 
of  grief"  for  his  untimely  death.  Both  Senator  BOGY  and  Senator 
MORTON  have  paid  the  one  great  last  debt  of  nature.  In  their  loss 
the  nation  mourns,  but  the  blow  falls  severest  on  the  two  States 
which  claimed  them  as  their  own ;  and  to-day  Indiana  and  Missouri 
in  common  mourn  the  untimely  death  of  these  two  eminent  men. 

Sir,  Senator  MORTON  is  no  more.  His  tongue  is  stilled  and  his  lips 
are  hushed  in  death.  He  has  passed  on  a  little  before  us,  and  we 
shall  soon  follow.  He  sleeps  the  sleep  of  death,  "that  sleep  which 
knows  no  waking."  In  the  prime  of  his  intellectual  vigor  he  was 
cut  off,  and  at  a  time  when  our  "needs  were  the  sorest."  In  the 
beautiful  language  of  Prentiss — 

There  is  no  appeal  for  relief  from  the  great  law  which  dooms  us  to  the  dust.  We 
flourish  and  fade  as  the  leaves  of  the  forest;  and  the  leaves  that  bloom  and  wither 
in  a  day  have  no  frailer  hold  upon  life  than  the  mightiest  monarch  that  ever  shook 
the  earth  with  his  footsteps.  Generations  of  men  will  appear  and  disappear  as  the 
grass,  and  the  multitude  that  throngs  the  world  to-day  will  disappear  as  the  foot 
steps  on  the  shore.  Men  seldom  think  of  the  great  event  of  death  until  the  shadows 
fall  across  their  own  pathway,  hiding  from  their  eyes  the  faces  of  loved  ones  whose 
loving  smile  was  the  sunlight  of  their  existence.  Death  is  the  antagonist  of  life, 
and  the  cold  thought  of  the  tomb  is  the  skeleton  of  all  feasts.  "We  do  not  want  to  go 
through  the  dark  valley,  although  its  dark  passage  may  lead  to  paradise.  We  do  not 
want  to  lie  down  in  the  damp  grave,  even  with  princes  as  bed-fellows. 

Those  of  us  who  believe  in  Senator  MORTON  may  well  console 
ourselves  that  he  died  in  the  fullest  fruition  of  earthly  fame;  with 
one  foot  upon  the  topmost  round  of  the  ladder  he  launched  over  into 
the  eternity  beyond. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   OLIVER   P.    MORTON.  125 

Wreaths  will  fade  and  wither  on  his  tomb;  perennial  flowers 
will  blossom  and  decay;  the  autumn  winds  in  eddying  gusts  will 
sweep  the  sere  and  crisped  leaves  above  him ;  remorseless  time  will 
raze  the  well-rounded  mound  where  he  sleeps ;  monuments  will  rust 
and  granite  crumble;  but  his  achievements  are  enduring  and  his 
name,  encircled  with  bright  immortelles,  is  imperishable. 

It  now  remains  my  sad  duty  to  move  the  adoption  of  the  resolu 
tions  sent  to  us  from  the  Senate  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  OLIVER 
P.  MORTON,  late  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Indiana. 

The  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously. 

Mr.  BROWNE.  I  move  the  adoption  of  the  following  additional 
resolution : 

Resolved,  That  as  a  further  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  OLIVER  P.  MORTON, 
late  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Indiana,  this  House  do  now  adjourn, 

The  resolution  was  adopted ;  and  accordingly  (at  four  o'clock  and 
thirtyrfive  minutes  p.  m.)  the  House  adjourned  until  Monday  next. 


YD   12471 


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